Would one of the several people who have downvoted this like to explain their reasons? Not because I think they’re wrong (I’ve barely skimmed the linked article and have no idea) but because it seems like it could be any of “it’s too long and boring”, “it’s flatly wrong on issues X, Y, and Z”, “I think Richard Carrier is an idiot and would downvote links to anything of his”, “how dare you criticize evolutionary psychology?!”, etc., etc., and more specific criticisms would be much more useful.
It is long and boring. But even the beginning is not promising at all. The author starts by essentially saying that evopsych is bad because racism, but it has some redeeming features because it allows for gays. That’s a really bad start.
That doesn’t match my impression of the start of it. The article’s first mention[1] of racism is this:
A lot of what people find eyerollingly stupid about EvoPsych is actually a product of the media [...] or almost as often pseudoscientific loons [...] misreporting or misusing the results of EvoPsych. For which EvoPsych proponents can’t be blamed, other than for not doing more to combat this abuse and misrepresentation of their field than they should be [...]. Indeed EvoPsych proponents should be more involved in publicly combating the nonsense that their science is abused for (including racism, sexism, and misogyny).
which is saying not “evopsych is bad because racism” but “evopsych may get a bad reputation because of racism but that’s not evopsych’s fault and its proponents should be fighting abuse of evopsych”. (And “because it allows for gays” seems actually to be “because it offers an explanation for the otherwise puzzling existence of homosexuality”.)
[1] There seems to exactly one other, which is made only in passing and seems clearly unobjectionable.
“evopsych may get a bad reputation because of racism but that’s not evopsych’s fault and its proponents should be fighting abuse of evopsych”
Well many critics of EvoPsych accuse perfectly correct parts of EvoPsych of racism because they don’t like the conclusions. True, maybe Carrier doesn’t do that specifically in this essay, but I think it’s only fair to expect critics of EvoPsych to be more involved in publicly combating the nonsense accusations some of the critics make.
I think it’s only fair to expect critics of EvoPsych to be more involved in publicly combating the nonsense accusations some of the critics make.
Are you aware of the prehistory with Rebecca Watson?
In case you aren’t Rebecca gave a speech at Skepticon crticizing EvoPsych as being pseudoscience because of bad thoughts being spread online under the banner of EvoPsych (Carrier links to her speech at the beginning). It became clear that Rebecca didn’t look into the actual science of EvoPsych.
Some people suggested that Rebecca is was playing out the typical anti-science handbook of not engaging with the claims of scientists when critizing a science but engaging stupid claims from people on the internet. Obviously holding an anti-science speech at a Skeptic converence is controversial.
If you link to an article of the length, post excerpts. I would expect the article this post to have a more positive reception if a few well chosen paragraphs would be cited.
I didn’t downvote but my feeling was the same as ChristianKI’s. As this topic has seen a number of different debates/discussions over the years at LW, I wondered why you thought this particular article was worth bringing up.
Would one of the several people who have downvoted this like to explain their reasons? Not because I think they’re wrong (I’ve barely skimmed the linked article and have no idea) but because it seems like it could be any of “it’s too long and boring”, “it’s flatly wrong on issues X, Y, and Z”, “I think Richard Carrier is an idiot and would downvote links to anything of his”, “how dare you criticize evolutionary psychology?!”, etc., etc., and more specific criticisms would be much more useful.
It is long and boring. But even the beginning is not promising at all. The author starts by essentially saying that evopsych is bad because racism, but it has some redeeming features because it allows for gays. That’s a really bad start.
That doesn’t match my impression of the start of it. The article’s first mention[1] of racism is this:
which is saying not “evopsych is bad because racism” but “evopsych may get a bad reputation because of racism but that’s not evopsych’s fault and its proponents should be fighting abuse of evopsych”. (And “because it allows for gays” seems actually to be “because it offers an explanation for the otherwise puzzling existence of homosexuality”.)
[1] There seems to exactly one other, which is made only in passing and seems clearly unobjectionable.
Well many critics of EvoPsych accuse perfectly correct parts of EvoPsych of racism because they don’t like the conclusions. True, maybe Carrier doesn’t do that specifically in this essay, but I think it’s only fair to expect critics of EvoPsych to be more involved in publicly combating the nonsense accusations some of the critics make.
Are you aware of the prehistory with Rebecca Watson?
In case you aren’t Rebecca gave a speech at Skepticon crticizing EvoPsych as being pseudoscience because of bad thoughts being spread online under the banner of EvoPsych (Carrier links to her speech at the beginning). It became clear that Rebecca didn’t look into the actual science of EvoPsych. Some people suggested that Rebecca is was playing out the typical anti-science handbook of not engaging with the claims of scientists when critizing a science but engaging stupid claims from people on the internet. Obviously holding an anti-science speech at a Skeptic converence is controversial.
If you link to an article of the length, post excerpts. I would expect the article this post to have a more positive reception if a few well chosen paragraphs would be cited.
I didn’t downvote but my feeling was the same as ChristianKI’s. As this topic has seen a number of different debates/discussions over the years at LW, I wondered why you thought this particular article was worth bringing up.