Alas, Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology - Hardcover

 
9780609605134: Alas, Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0609605135 ISBN 13: 9780609605134
Verlag: Harmony Books, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

A thought-provoking study of the theory of Evolutionary Psychology joins the debate with an interdisciplinary collection of essays, articles, and arguments--by Stephen Jay Gould, Anne Fausto-Sterling, and other prominent thinkers--that discuss virtually every aspect of the theory, its strengths, its weaknesses, and its implications. 15,000 first printing.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Hilary Rose is a sociologist of science. Her most recent book is <i>Love Power and Knowledge: Towards a Feminist Transformation of the Sciences</i>. <br><br>Steven Rose is a neurobiologist. His most recent books are <i>The Making of Memory</i> and <i>Lifelines: Biology, Freedom, Determinism</i>.

Aus dem Klappentext

ars, the claims of genetics and evolutionary psychology to explain and indeed legislate on the human condition have been loudly trumpeted in a host of popular books. Genes are said to account for almost every aspect of our lives. Evolution is supposed to explain alleged human universals, from male philandering and female coyness to children's dislike of spinach. There are even claimed to be genes that account for differences between people -- from sexual orientation to drug addiction, aggression, religiosity, and job satisfaction. It appears that Darwin, at least in the hands of his popularizers, has replaced Marx and Freud as the great interpreter of human existence.<br><br>Biologists, social scientists, and philosophers have begun to rebel against this undisciplined approach to their different understandings of the world, demonstrating that the claims of evolutionary psychology rest on shaky empirical evidence, flawed premises, and unexamined political presuppositions. In this groundbreaking b

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Perhaps the nadir of evolutionary psychology's specultive fantasies was reached earlier this year with the publication of A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion, by Randy Thornhill and Craig Palmer. In characteristic EP style, Thornhill and Palmer argue that rape is an adaptive strategy by which otherwise sexually unsuccessful men propagate their genes by mating with fertile women. To make this claim they draw extensively on examples of forced sex among animals, which they insist on categorizing as "rape." Yet as long ago as the 1980s the leading journals in the field of animal behavior rejected this type of sociobiological strategy which anthropomorphizes animal behavior. Specifically, using the term "rape" to refer to forced sex by mallard ducks or scorpion flies (Thornhill's animal of study) was ruled out, as it is not a helpful concept in the nonhuman context because it conflates conspicuous differences between human and other animals' practices of forced sex. Above all forced sex among animals always takes place with fertile females--hence the reproductive potential. As those women's groups, lawyers and feminist criminologists who have confronted rape over the last three decades have documented, victims of rape are often either too young or too old to be fertile. The universalistic explanation offered by Thornhill and Palmer simply fails to address the evidence. Instead they insult women, victims and nonvictims alike, by suggesting, for example, that a tight blouse is in itself an automatic invitation to sex. They insist on distal (in their slightly archaic language, "ultimate") explanations when proximate ones are so much more explanatory (see Steven Rose's chapter). Further, given the difficulties of securing convictions, and the immense guilt which still surrounds rape victims so that tragically they feel they have brought rape on themselves, the measurements of the incidence of rape are extremely frail. Despite their protestations that they want to help women, the version of evolutionary psychology offered by Thornhill and Palmer is offensive both to women and also to the project of building a culture which rejects rape.

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Verlag
Harmony Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2000
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0609605135
ISBN 13 
9780609605134
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
346
Herausgeber
Rose Hilary, Rose Steven
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
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022188841282
Lars.Mueller@musicstore.de

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