Criticism of Evolutionary Psychology - History of The Debate

History of The Debate

See also: Biopsychiatry controversy and Evolutionary theory and the political left

Critics and supporters have debated various aspects of evolutionary psychology. The history of debate from the evolutionary psychology perspective is covered in detail in books by Segerstråle (2000) and Alcock (2001). Also see recent overviews of EP with rebuttals to critics in Confer, et al. (2010), as well as relevant chapters in D. M. Buss (Ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology.

The history of the debate from the critics' perspective is detailed by Gannon (2002). Critics of EP include the philosophers of science David Buller author of Adapting Minds, Robert C. Richardson author of Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology, and Brendan Wallace, author of Getting Darwin Wrong: Why Evolutionary Psychology Won't Work. Other critics include Neurobiologists like Steven Rose who edited "Alas, Poor Darwin: Arguments against Evolutionary Psychology", and biological anthropologists like Jonathan Marks and social anthropologists like Tim Ingold and Marshall Sahlins.

Critics of EP have argued that evolutionary psychology is based on misconceptions of biological and evolutionary theory.

Read more about this topic:  Criticism Of Evolutionary Psychology

Famous quotes containing the words history of the, history of, history and/or debate:

    “He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “There are two great unknown forces to-day, electricity and woman, but men can reckon much better on electricity than they can on woman.”
    —Josephine K. Henry, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 15, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)

    “What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.”
    —Toni Morrison (b. 1931)