Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Ichneumon; RightWhale; Alamo-Girl; PatrickHenry
Cosmides's experiments with the Wason selection task demonstrated conclusively not only that our mental processes are adapted for specific situations, but that our normal social interactions are guided by an informal logic, not the analytical logic of mathematics and the physical sciences. Although domain-generality and the overall plasticity of the mind have been cited as evidence against evolutionary psychology (and modular theories in general), it may very well be that the flexibility which characterizes deductive-analytical logic is itself an adapation, as natural selection may have favored such open-ended mental processes.

I recommend the books Evolution and the Human Mind edited by Peter Carruthers and Andrew Chamberlain, and The Prehistory of the Mind by Steven Mithen as excellent expositions of the adaptationist perspective in psychology. For those not yet acquainted with the subject, click here for an introduction.

153 posted on 06/13/2005 9:14:31 PM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Creationism is not conservative!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 144 | View Replies ]


To: RightWingAtheist
Evolution and the Human Mind Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,880,712 in Books edited by Peter Carruthers and Andrew Chamberlain, and The Prehistory of the Mind by Steven Mithen Amazon.com Sales Rank: #125,310 in Books

Mithen would be cheaper, but these theories are way out and controversial. I don't know if they help except to make the language incomprehensible to anyone who is not already on board.

203 posted on 06/14/2005 9:27:23 AM PDT by RightWhale (Some may think I am a methodist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 153 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson