creators_name: Buller, David J.
type: journalp
datestamp: 1998-06-18
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:49
metadata_visibility: show
title: Individualism and Evolutionary Psychology (or: In Defense of 'Narrow' Functions)
ispublished: pub
subjects: bio-ani-behav
subjects: bio-etho
subjects: cog-psy
subjects: phil-mind
subjects: phil-sci
subjects: psy-bio
full_text_status: public
keywords: individualism, behavioral ecology, function, etiological theory, proximate mechanisms, selection
abstract: Millikan and Wilson argue, for different reasons, that the essential reference to the environment in adaptationist explanations of behavior makes (psychological) individualism inconsistent with evolutionary psychology. I show that their arguments are based on misinterpretations of the role of reference to the environment in such explanations. By exploring these misinterpretations, I develop an account of explanation in evolutionary psychology that is fully consistent with individualism. This does not, however, constitute a full-fledged defense of individualism, since evolutionary psychology is only one explanatory paradigm among many in psychology.
date: 1997-03
date_type: published
publication: Philosophy of Science
volume: 64
pagerange: 74-95
refereed: TRUE
citation:   Buller, David J.  (1997) Individualism and Evolutionary Psychology (or: In Defense of 'Narrow' Functions).  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/328/1/indy%26ep.htm