I've been planning on writing a series of posts about how our species evolved into its current condition, and how that process has influenced the way people think about the organization of society. Here is a husband-wife team of researchers into the very topic. Listen to what they have to say; it helps to explain a lot we need to be looking at.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Reason TV: Evolutionary Psychology
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I had been amazed for years that Evolutionary principles were not taken into consideration in Psychology, but since I had no standing in the field, I didn't even know who to talk to about it. I think, actually, that many people in Psychology have considered Evolutionary principles, but threw them out when it indicated things that they didn't like. It's really funny, in a way, because it's the kind of response you would expect from a staunchly Religious person, denying the development of mental functions based on the development of the species.
ReplyDeleteMuch of Science Fiction assumes that evolution takes a role in the psychology of living things, so I presumed that Psychologists would consider it, too. I'm glad someone is finally working this into the field. Maybe we will actually make some progress in truly understanding some of the issues NOT caused by congenital chemical imbalances.
Wayne, the way she describes not being able to get her paper published really makes me wonder about these "Scientists".
ReplyDeleteOh, Scientists are like that in all disciplines, as far as I understand. Whenever someone comes up with a theory that radically departs from currently accepted dogma, no one wants to consider that their previously-held beliefs could be wrong, so the ones who are in current power bring their influence to bear to prevent that person getting their word out to others.
ReplyDeleteI've seen stories about that kind of thing happening in Paleontology, Physics, Anthropology, and other sciences. I'm just surprised that this hadn't been thought of earlier. Of course, it's possible that it did, just that whomever did so before, wasn't able to get their ideas to enough people to generate a movement.