billswift comments on Problems in evolutionary psychology - Less Wrong
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Buller's Adapting Minds
I read this a while back but have been putting off writing about it while I thought about it (and until I reread at least parts of it). Some parts I think are mistaken and some need more work, but it is mostly an interesting critique of Evolutionary Psychology.
The hardest to follow, and where I think the most potential benefit lies, is in Chapter 4 on modularity of minds. One big problem for evolutionary psychology is its claim for "massive modularity" versus the well established plasticity of minds at the neural level, and that all memory and mental function relies completely on the neural plasticity.
It's a good book, but see also Debunking Adapting Minds.
I read that, and many other criticisms, before I bought the book. Some of the criticisms are accurate, others miss, and most there is no real way to decide rationally either way. As for most of the criticisms from the EvoPsych direction, they are of the 3 chapters on specific adaptation claims that I haven't read, I am more interested in the basis, and especially as I pointed out above the conflict between evo-psyc and neural plasticity which I don't think even this paper addresses adequately (and the others mostly or entirely ignore). I'm not going to respond any more right now, like I wrote above I need to think through it a bit more.
Amazon's summary has:
IMO, that does an excellent job of making the author sound clueless.
I personally have nothing against the term "Human Nature". But I think it is easy to reconstruct Buller's meaning here. Our "nature" has clearly evolved; evolution takes place (in part) as a result of variation in a population; evolution of our "nature" is still taking place; hence there is still variation in the "nature" of the human population; hence the whole concept that the species has an essential "Human Nature" is flawed. We are diverse.
I'm not sure I would want to call that kind of word chopping "clueless". But I would point out that the diversity in human nature is the result of the last 150,000 years or so of our evolution, whereas our shared evolutionary history (creating an "essence" of human nature) spans a period roughly 40 times as long.
It reminds me of those who argue against:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_intelligence_factor
...on the grounds that intelligence is composed of many diverse abilities.
Someone making such a complaint about the term "Human Nature" simply hasn't bothered to understand what the term is intended to refer to.
I haven't read Adapting Minds, but I've seen responses to it by evolutionary psychologists. You can find a bunch of them on Cosmides' and Tooby's website
See this one by Delton, Robertson, and Kenrick for instance:
...
Another negative review from Machery and Barrett concluded:
The arguments of Buller's critics seem well-reasoned and well-cited, though someone who has read his book would have to confirm that they are fair to him.
Has anyone from evolutionary biology proper weighed in with a critique of Buller? Even Buller's critics admit that the book was well received generally in the academic press.