Title: Evolutionary Psychology [The Human Condition]
Headings: Evolutionary Psychology
−
Table of Contents
Evolutionary Psychology
What We Think
So it's all about Sex?
Selfishness, Violence and Prejudice
Internal Controversies
Discussion
The Development of Consciousness

Content: Humans have quite a few peculiarities in their reproductive strategies which evolutionary psychologists have connected to differences in male and female behavior (see Sex Differences ). To many it seems nonsensical to propose that having lots of grandchildren is the intention underlying all human behavior because: Especially in the modern world, most of our daily activities don't advance our supposed reproductive goal in any obvious way (reading People magazine), and in many cases clearly reduce the prospects for our continued survival (binge drinking, running for president.) When you ask people what their intention is they will hardly ever mention reproductive success. If you press someone for the ultimate top-level goal it will usually be either emotional (because I love her), moral (it was the right thing to do) or spiritual (it gives meaning to my life.) Evolutionary psychologists reply that: Many apparently unproductive activities either do advance our reproductive success (in ways that are either subtle or politically incorrect), or were adaptive up until recently, or can be regarded as an incidental side-effect of important adaptive behaviors, and
That we behave as though reproductive success were our intention even though this is not an intention that we are conscious of (see Intentional Opacity ). Evolutionary psychologists are particularly interested in explaining why we have the emotions and motivations that we do. Selfishness, Violence and Prejudice
Another objection to evolutionary psychology is that it paints such a bleak picture of the human condition. Why are evolutionary psychologists so interested in unpleasant behaviors such as competitiveness, selfishness, deception, self-promotion, cheating and violence?