Mika Leppämäki

Hi. I'm interested in evolutionary psychology. Can you recommend me one "pro" and one "anti" book. Thank you.

Oolon Colluphid

Easy.

Pro: Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works.

Con: Rose et al, Not in Our Genes (OOP in the US apparently).

It may be best to start with those; however I recommend that everyone interested in this (you there, Dr Rick? ) get hold of Barrett, Dunbar and Lycett’s textbook Human Evolutionary Psychology, which shows just how wrong Rose and co are and how genuinely scientific EP is, while reigning in the more extravagant Pinker end of the debate. (At the start, they point out that cultural phenomena are just as inheritable -- and so open to Darwinian selection -- as genetic influences, so arguments over whether it’s ‘genes’ or not are somewhat misleading. I’ll report more when I’ve read further than chapter 2 .) See this review from Human Nature Review for more details.

Cheers, DT

Secular Pinoy

Pro:
The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life by Robert Wright

or

The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley

Con:
Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature
by Steven Rose , Leon Kamin, Richard C. Lewontin

or

Vaulting Ambition by Philip Kitcher (I haven't read it, though it is always referenced by anti-SB/EP books and articles)

pz

Really? I'm pretty sure that evolutionary psychology is a load of crap backed up by some extraordinarily bad science, so I have my doubts. I'm going to be very disappointed if I dig this up and it turns out to be the same ol' handwaving we get from the likes of Pinker.

Kantian

PZ, I was about to purchase his book, the Blank Slate, after reading a couple of reviews (one in the Nation).

Have you read that book? If so, does it consist of hand-waving? In what way?

I have understood it seems to conclude the tired "nature vs nurture" debate with a little of both.

~Transcendentalist~
__________________
Reason has often led us into transcendent metaphysics that "overstep the limits of all experience, [and] no object adequate to the transcendental ideal can ever be found within experience."

Pee Pee Poodle

Link to jpg that doesn't seem to load

edited by pz: Mr Poodle, I have no idea what you are trying to do by making posts that consist of nothing but images linked in from other sites, but I would appreciate it if you would knock it off.

pz

Sorry, I haven't read The Blank Slate, nor do I expect that I ever will. I've read some of Pinker's other stuff, and consider him to be the author of some of the most empty-headed, unscientific swill I've seen published. I simply can't stand the guy.

Human evolutionary psychology is one of those subjects that gets me almost as irate as Intelligent Design.

Kantian

Then that means i have no reason to take you at your word. I should stop procrastinating and take the plunge into the deep end and take a trip to the local Borders.

Tomorrow.



Has anyone else read this book?

Here are a few links to reviews of this book.

The Guardian

New York Metro

A bunch of ebullient reviews at MIT

~Transcendentalist~
__________________
Reason has often led us into transcendent metaphysics that "overstep the limits of all experience, [and] no object adequate to the transcendental ideal can ever be found within experience."

Duck!

I finished How The Mind Works only a couple of hours ago.

Is it really that bad? Is it just his evolutionary explanations for human psychology that are bad or are his psychological writings in general bad? What I mean is, is his understanding of the workings of the human mind awry or are his explanations for the workings of the human mind awry? i.e. is his understanding of how the human mind processes visual informations wrong or is his evolutionary explanation for why the human mind processes visual information in a particular way wrong?

Most of it sounded like good science to me. But I'm a not very well read layman so I can't necessarily distinguish good from bad psychology.

I ask because I wanted to next buy and read The Language Instinct. I didn't know some people had such a dislike of his work.


Duck!

Duck!

Two posters have mentioned "Not In Our Genes". Any recommendations or thoughts on this book?


Duck!