The Problems with Evolutionary Psychology
The evolutionary psychology FAQ at UCSB: (Warning: it s a sad, ugly, long document, but worth perusing if you want ammunition against evolutionary psychology. ) Chapter 7 of Darwin s Descent of Man: (Warning: it ll be a shock if you haven t read 19th century literature in scientific racism before. Darwin held all the biases of his time. ) The critical points: Evolution is more than just selection, and includes mutation, recombination, and drift. Natural selection has a cost; it puts an upper bound on the number of elements subject to selection. Populations have a substantial amount of genetic variation. Most of that variation is neutral, or nearly neutral. Mutations that have a small effect are invisible to selection. Pharyngula: Email: Twitter: Mastodon: pzmyer
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