The Mechanics of Evolutionary Psychology - Essay Example

It emphasizes on the importance of evolutionary origins as reasons for our behavioral and anthropological responses. There might not even be a difference between reason and instinct as early philosophers like Aquinas and Hume set out to prove. Maybe just maybe the terms are interchangeable. He goes on to explain how the phenomena of linking biology with psychology revisit the five basic principles of psychology. 3. " your conscious experience can mislead you into thinking that our circuitry is simpler than it is.

Most problems that you experience as easy to solve are very difficult to solve -- they require very complicated neural circuitry" The author believes that these five principles are the " tools for thinking about psychology, which can be applied to any topic: sex and sexuality, how and why people cooperate, whether people are rational, how babies see the world, conformity, aggression, hearing, vision, sleeping, eating, hypnosis, schizophrenia and on and on." For him links many areas of study into one,i.e. the study of evolutionary psychology.

The author tries to bring in the views of Darwin who believed a lot in the evolutional psychology of mankind. He agrees with Darwin's views on "adaptation driven by natural selection" and "common descent". He also cites Dawkins and Williams in their support of the idea that "natural selection is the only component of the evolutionary process that can introduce complex functional organization into a species' phenotype". He goes on to say that our "selections" for reproduction are natural and we are programmed to choose the best-looking mate out there for procreation.4. Did the author address any contrary evidence or the opinions/work of others that run counter the author(s) claims He refers to the works of Aquinas and Hume saying that the position before the theory of Darwin came out was that there was an " a common view among philosophers and scientists that the human mind resembles a blank slate, virtually free of content until written on by the hand of experience. 

He quotes Aquinas as saying “there is nothing in the intellect which was not previously in the senses." He also addresses the views of DavHumee who he quotes as saying, "...there appear to be only three principles of connexion among ideas, namely Resemblance, Contiguity in time or place, and Cause or Effect."

What were the strengths and/or weaknesses of the author(s) argument?
The author does make some very interesting points regarding the control that evolution has on our attitudes. There are no purely biological explanations as to how we made rational and irrational decisions. There is some human behavior that is explainable at all with the mere aid of biology. They reflect upon as the descendants of the cave man cavemannetics make us behave in particular wars whether it is “ sexual attraction, jealousy, parental love, the food aversions and timing of pregnancy sickness, the aesthetic preferences that govern our appreciation of the natural environment, coalitional aggression, incest avoidance, disgust, foraging and so on”. These are all our natural competencies and they all link to how tangy and evolution both mold our mythologies,

What are your conclusions? Do you agree or disagree with the author? Why? It does become a bit difficult at times to stomach the “descent from apes” theory of Darwin, and the normal attitude is to flinch at the very mention of our ancestors being hairy and monkey-like running around in a “Flintstones” setting. We tend to despise chauvinistic men and call them “Cavemen” as a sign of rebuke. However, it should be noted and I agree with the author that no matter how artificial our attitudes get our basic and many other instincts will be governed by our evolutionary trends and not by “reason or culture”.