[FRIAM] the pseudoscience of evolutionary psychology?

[uǝlƃ ☣]

Having skimmed your paper, I think the wikipedia quote is adequate and more appropriate simply because it's shorter:

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_evolutionary_psychology#Testability
> Leda Cosmides argued in an interview:
> 
>     "Those who have a professional knowledge of evolutionary biology know that it is not possible to cook up after the fact explanations of just any trait. There are important constraints on evolutionary explanation. More to the point, every decent evolutionary explanation has testable predictions about the design of the trait. For example, the hypothesis that pregnancy sickness is a byproduct of prenatal hormones predicts different patterns of food aversions than the hypothesis that it is an adaptation that evolved to protect the fetus from pathogens and plant toxins in food at the point in embryogenesis when the fetus is most vulnerable – during the first trimester. Evolutionary hypotheses – whether generated to discover a new trait or to explain one that is already known – carry predictions about the nature of that trait. The alternative – having no hypothesis about adaptive function – carries no predictions whatsoever. So which is the more constrained and sober scientific approach?" 

Given that, we can move back to Jordan Peterson and ask: Are there any testable hypotheses for this "alpha male" concept Peterson peddles to his "masculinity" fanboys?




On 02/14/2018 10:48 AM, Nick Thompson wrote:
> Once the two extreme positions have been set aside, we are left in the messy middle. 
> 
>  
> 
> */Under what circumstances and in which domains does knowledge of human evolutionary history have anything to contribute to our understanding of contemporary human behavior?  /*
> 
>  
> 
> I would love to have a sustained, thoughtful discussion of this question on this list.  It is very close to my heart.   Because I don’t have time, right now,  to write a screed, or even a rant, I shall fall back on that practice favored by all academic scoundrels:  I shall cite one of my own papers. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302220782_My_Descent_from_the_Monkey>  (If this link doesn’t work, could somebody let me know, please?)


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☣ uǝlƃ