Saturday, November 23, 2002

Critiquing Evolutionary Psychology

There is a biting and amusing attack on evolutionary psychology in the lastest New Yorker, in the form of a review of Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. "Music appreciation, for instance, seems to be wired in at about the level of 'Hot Cross Buns.' But people learn to enjoy Wagner. They even learn to sing Wagner. One suspects that enjoying Wagner, singing Wagner, anything to do with Wagner, is in gross excess of the requirements of natural selection." There is also a critique in The New Republic.

No comments: