Premium
Natural Selection Doesn’t Work That Way: Jerry Fodor vs. Evolutionary Psychology on Gradualism and Saltationism
Author(s) -
Ariew André
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0017.00238
Subject(s) - gradualism , natural selection , epistemology , evolutionary theory , evolutionary psychology , philosophy , niche construction , evolutionary epistemology , selection (genetic algorithm) , work (physics) , psychology , cognitive science , ecology , computer science , biology , paleontology , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , engineering
Abstract: In Chapter Five of The Mind Doesn’t Work That Way , Jerry Fodor argues that since it is likely that human minds evolved quickly as saltations rather than gradually as the product of an accumulation of small mutations, evolutionary psychologists are wrong to think that human minds are adaptations. I argue that Fodor's requirement that adaptationism entails gradualism is wrongheaded. So, while evolutionary psychologists may be wrong to endorse gradualism—and I argue that they are wrong—it does not follow that they are wrong to endorse an adaptationist explanation for how the human mind evolved.