Yes, we’re all tired of hearing cousin Joe’s transparent attempts to rationalize his personal prejudices by convincing himself that ‘it’s evolution’. And yes, as a general rule, in propositions of the form ‘humans exhibit behavior X due to evolutionary explanation Y’ the ‘explanation Y’ part provides very little evidence. But I can’t help but notice that this makes a very convenient excuse to dismiss any observation you happen to be uncomfortable with, just because it comes packaged with an evolutionary explanation.
Since the whole topic of human behavior is bound to make people uncomfortable, this doesn’t strike me as a winning strategy. Far better to admit that an evolutionary perspective can be a handy tool for identifying fruitful research topics and separating plausible vs. implausible hypothesis, even though the evolutionary explanation does not in and of itself qualify as evidence. Which, of course, is the approach that actual ev-psych researchers (as opposed to cocktail-lounge theorists) generally take.
But I can’t help but notice that this makes a very convenient excuse to dismiss any observation you happen to be uncomfortable with, just because it comes packaged with an evolutionary explanation.
Hardly. If I take an offered explanation for an observation with a grain of salt, that doesn’t mean I can dismiss the observation itself. At most I can dismiss the explanation.
Far better to admit that an evolutionary perspective can be a handy tool for identifying fruitful research topics
Yes, that’s what I was saying.
and separating plausible vs. implausible hypothesis
Evolutionary psychology is likely to also help with this, yes, though we need to be careful with it and remember what we don’t know.
Yes, we’re all tired of hearing cousin Joe’s transparent attempts to rationalize his personal prejudices by convincing himself that ‘it’s evolution’. And yes, as a general rule, in propositions of the form ‘humans exhibit behavior X due to evolutionary explanation Y’ the ‘explanation Y’ part provides very little evidence. But I can’t help but notice that this makes a very convenient excuse to dismiss any observation you happen to be uncomfortable with, just because it comes packaged with an evolutionary explanation.
Since the whole topic of human behavior is bound to make people uncomfortable, this doesn’t strike me as a winning strategy. Far better to admit that an evolutionary perspective can be a handy tool for identifying fruitful research topics and separating plausible vs. implausible hypothesis, even though the evolutionary explanation does not in and of itself qualify as evidence. Which, of course, is the approach that actual ev-psych researchers (as opposed to cocktail-lounge theorists) generally take.
Hardly. If I take an offered explanation for an observation with a grain of salt, that doesn’t mean I can dismiss the observation itself. At most I can dismiss the explanation.
Yes, that’s what I was saying.
Evolutionary psychology is likely to also help with this, yes, though we need to be careful with it and remember what we don’t know.