What Is Evolutionary Psychology: Explaining the New Science of the Mind

by Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Helena Cronin (Editor)

There really is a universal human nature, and the aim of evolutionary psychology is to discover it. According to this bold new approach, the mind was designed by natural selection to solve the problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. As a result, it is no blank slate. The mind is a collection of tools, each specialized for solving a different ancestral problem. From recognizing faces to falling in love, or acquiring a language to reciprocating favors, evolutionary psychology is at last unraveling the mystery of what it means to be human. Here two pioneers of the field, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, explain the science behind the headlines. They outline the intellectual framework of this exciting new discipline, describe its main findings and conclusions, and set out an agenda for future research. The result is a powerful and pervasive perspective on the evolution of human nature, which changes how we look at reasoning, the emotions, motivation, and even aesthetics.

Genres: Psychology, Evolution, Nonfiction

64 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

Leda Cosmides is a Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
She is the co-director of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology.
Focus of research: Evolutionary psychology and cognitive science. Using evolutionary theory to develop computational theories of adaptive information-processing problems. Testing for presence of evolutionarily predicted information-processing mechanisms, their neural basis, and cultural sequelae. Empirical work focuses on cooperation, threat, coalitional psychology, kin detection, incest avoidance, intuitive statistics, computational approach to motivation.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book about how the mind developed and some surprising facts about it.

Modularity of mind is the notion that a mind may, at least in part, be composed of innate neural structures or modules which have distinct established evolutionarily developed functions. Somewhat different definitions of "module" have been proposed by different authors.

Robert Wright posits that Evolutionary psychology may provide proof that there is no self. The fact that parts of the brain exist that do not seem to communicate with one another, and that a person can actually deceive himself and know about the deception at the same time.

Good news if you'd like to read the book you can read it for free, Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer

[ri · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved loved loved!!!! such an interesting topic