Hogwash!
I find it interesting that the Center for Inquiry, a skeptical organization, is hosting several talks on evolutionary psychology.
Evolutionary psychology is the ugly step-sister of cognitive science. The foundations of this sub-discipline are rotten, based on jokers and junk science. Far as I can tell those who have come after are either apologists or justifiers of conservative beliefs.
Like proponents of intelligent design, evolutionary psychologists reverse the normal order of inquiry. They have "facts", like men make more money than women, and try to justify this "fact" with evolutionary evidence. The main problem is that we have little information regarding the crucible in which our species was formed. What's most interesting to me is that they seem to think the 1950's was the pinnacle of human development, and act as though any deviation from those particular norms are abberations. As you might imagine, EP has it's share of racists, misogynists and homophobes as researchers.
Evolutionary psychologists lack perspective. As with global warming denialists, they cherry pick their data and ignore data from other fields, anthropology being one of the most relevant for evolutionary psychology. Anthropology has much to say regarding human behavior, ignoring people like Margaret Mead is a good way to make yourself look like a fool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_evolutionary_psychology#Political_and_ethical_issues
Evolutionary psychology is the ugly step-sister of cognitive science. The foundations of this sub-discipline are rotten, based on jokers and junk science. Far as I can tell those who have come after are either apologists or justifiers of conservative beliefs.
Like proponents of intelligent design, evolutionary psychologists reverse the normal order of inquiry. They have "facts", like men make more money than women, and try to justify this "fact" with evolutionary evidence. The main problem is that we have little information regarding the crucible in which our species was formed. What's most interesting to me is that they seem to think the 1950's was the pinnacle of human development, and act as though any deviation from those particular norms are abberations. As you might imagine, EP has it's share of racists, misogynists and homophobes as researchers.
Evolutionary psychologists lack perspective. As with global warming denialists, they cherry pick their data and ignore data from other fields, anthropology being one of the most relevant for evolutionary psychology. Anthropology has much to say regarding human behavior, ignoring people like Margaret Mead is a good way to make yourself look like a fool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_evolutionary_psychology#Political_and_ethical_issues