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Evolutionary Cognitivism, Part I: Selection and Cognition
I am very enthusiastic about Bjorklund & Pellegrini’s 2002 text, Evolutionary Developmental Psychology. I am going to discuss four places I believe that the book’s discussion can be extended, on...
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Evolutionary Cognitivism, Part II: Epigenetics and Diversity
The question of group-level human variation has been a hot one. Some research argues for continental, race-like groupings in which there is more variation between groups than within them (Jorde, et...
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Evolutionary Cognitivism, Part III: Children and Civilization
For most of hominid evolution, newer meant bigger. Newer species had bigger brains than older ones, and later members of a species had bigger brains than earlier members (Rightmire, 2001). And for...
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Evolutionary Cognitivism, Part V: Man Among Men
I believe, as Bjoyklund & Pellegrini (2002, 193) do, “that the evolution of the human species’ unique intelligence was motivated by the need to deal with other members of our social group.” I...
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Review of "Before the Dawn" by Nicholas Wade
The front cover of New York Times-reporter Nicholas Wade’s new book, Before the Dawn, contains a quote by E.O. Wilson: “By far the best book I have ever read on humanity’s deep history.” I couldn’t...
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Evolving Humans, but to what end?
Humanity, like all species, evolves through changes in the frequency of genetic variants over time. Where there is less diversity — less possible genetic variants to have their frequency varied — there...
View ArticleWhat if group ancestry matters?
Elam Bend emails in a fascinating review of A Farewell to Alms. The review is by Nicholas Wade, he who wrote Before the Dawn, so you know it’s worth your time. Farewell is derived from a study of...
View ArticleIn search of a darwinian ratchet: the ANC, the PLO, and the RAF
Evolution is the change in frequency of variations over time. The evolution of species by means of natural selection was first described by Charles Darwin. With this in mind, Fabius Maximus’s tak of a...
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What if evolution works 15,000 times faster than we imagined?
It was only eighteen months ago that I wrote a post titled “The implication of evolution after the dawn of agriculture.” At the time, I was startled by the idea that there may have been evolutionary...
View ArticleMultiple Inventions, Multiple Evolutions
My friend Jayson has emailed me a New Yorker article, “In the Air” by Malcom Gladwell. I previously saw it referenced by Peter Robinson over at The Corner, so it has now caught my eye twice. The...
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