Nick, I'd love to hear from you about evolutionary psychology and are prepared to wait patiently until you have time to respond properly.
Pieter On 14 February 2018 at 20:48, Nick Thompson <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > Dear Glen and Peter, > > > > I started out my career calling myself an Ethologist and studying > communication in monkeys and then crows. I ended my career as an > Evolutionary Psychologist studying human infant’s cries. So I feel some > obligation to stand up to your critique, while acknowledging that much of > it is fair. > > > > Lots going on right now so I will have to go at this slowly. But for > starters could we just agree to avoid saying anything stupid. The two most > obvious stupidities to avoid are: > > > > *Human Evolutionary history has nothing to do with contemporary human > behavior* > > > > *Human Evolutionary history has everything to do with contemporary human > behavior*. > > > > Once the two extreme positions have been set aside, we are left in the > messy middle. > > > > *Under what circumstances and in which domains does knowledge of human > evolutionary history have anything to contribute to our understanding of > contemporary human behavior? * > > > > I would love to have a sustained, thoughtful discussion of this question > on this list. It is very close to my heart. Because I don’t have time, > right now, to write a screed, or even a rant, I shall fall back on that > practice favored by all academic scoundrels: I shall cite one of my own > papers. > <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302220782_My_Descent_from_the_Monkey> > (If this link doesn’t work, could somebody let me know, please?) > > > > I hope we can carry this on for some time, but SLOWLY, please, so I can > keep up. > > > > Nick > > > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Pieter > Steenekamp > *Sent:* Wednesday, February 14, 2018 9:20 AM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] the pseudoscience of evolutionary psychology? > > > > It may be difficult to quantify evolutionary psychology, but that does not > mean it is pseudoscience. Like string theory that's also difficult to > quantify, the scientific method is also applicable to evolutionary > psychology. > > > > I support the view as expressed in https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/ > Evolutionary_psychology: > > "Just as Darwin's theory of natural selection was almost immediately > perverted to justify cruel bigotry (Social Darwinism, eugenics), so > evolutionary psychology is readily twisted to buttress prejudice. This does > not make evolutionary psychology wrong, any more than the brutality of > Social Darwinism made evolutionary theory wrong, but it does suggest that > claims rooted in it should be assessed very carefully, both by those > reading them and those writing them." > > > > On 13 February 2018 at 23:07, uǝlƃ ☣ <geprope...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I remain fascinated by the neoreactionaries (most of whom have ceded their > soap boxes to their alt-right offspring). And Google's tendency to promote > fringe garbage (https://www.wired.com/story/google-autocomplete-vile- > suggestions/) landed Jordan Peterson in my Youtube recommendations awhile > back. Based on the videos Youtube recommended, he sounded like a typical > right-wing pseudo-intellectual. But when I noticed Sam Harris taking him > seriously, I thought I'd look a little closer. Sure enough, the majority > of his online lectures spout fairly reasonable (albeit justificationist) > rhetoric ... a lot like Harris and fellow right-wing flirt Jonathan Haidt, > both of whom appeal to our xenophobic friends for differing reasons. > > I'm reminded of the argument I made on this list some time ago that, > although I believe open source is necessary for pretty much all things, it > *facilitates* nefarious action by obscurity. Because your library (e.g. > RSA backdoors or JavaScript cryptocurrency miners) has so much code in it, > and is just one library in a gamut of libraries you invoke, there's > absolutely no way you can *trust* that stack ... even if it's FOSS and gets > lots of eyeballs. > > Peterson, Harris, and Haidt, rely on the overt reasonability of 90% of > what they say in order to Trojan Horse the racist or otherwise questionable > content of the other 10%. Sure, they make a *technical* effort to weight > their assertions. And that's laudable. (Slate Star Codex and Alexander's > ilk do this well with their "epistemic status" rating, displayed fairly > prominently most of the time.) But this raises the reason I'm posting this > to FriAM. The quote from the Alternet article is (should be) provocative: > > https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/rights-favorite- > new-intellectual-has-some-truly-pitiable-ideas-about-masculinity > "Devotees of the pseudoscience of evolutionary psychology are fond of this > particular maneuver: locate some behavior in the more ancient branches of > the tree of life and project it forward across eons to explain little > Johnny pulling little Susie’s pigtails, or the collapse of Lehman Brothers, > or the Holocaust, or whatever. In any case, I like to imagine the > diaphanous, energy-based extraterrestrials in their invisible starships, so > unutterably alien that they gaze upon man and lobster and can’t tell them > apart." > > In particular re: Peterson, I've actually *used* (although mostly > jokingly) the alpha- beta-male (false) dichotomy at cocktail parties ... to > justify why I, as a proud beta male, am a wallflower. But now, I'm worried > that (like the many memes I learned from my libertarian friends) it's not > merely a useful fiction, but complete garbage: > https://youtu.be/YTyQgwVvYyc > > -- > ☣ uǝlƃ > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
