Stone Age Minds: A conversation with evolutionary psychologists Leda Cosmides and John Tooby

Based at the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby are two pioneers and leading lights in the field of evolutionary psychology. This multidisciplinary approach seeks to develop a better understanding of human nature by taking seriously the idea that our brains evolved to solve a variety of adaptive problems routinely faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

While our "stone age minds" have programs that are very good at things like detecting lies, attracting mates and avoiding predators, they are in many ways ill equipped for the kind of complex market-based society that we live in today. The lens of evolutionary psychology, for example, provides insights into why so many people in industrialized countries are overweight and sympathetic to socialist ideas.

Reason.tv's Paul Feine sat down with Cosmides and Tooby to learn more about evolutionary psychology, the history of the field, and the implications for our society.

Approximately 10 minutes. Produced by Paul Feine; shot by Alex Manning and Hawk Jensen; edited by Paul Feine and Alex Manning.

For an extended version of this interview, go to http://www.reason.tv .

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• reason foundation
• reason magazine
• reason.com
• reason.org
• libertarian
• evolutionary psychology
• Paul Feine
• Alex Manning
• stone age minds
• Leda Cosmides
• John Tooby

[niriop]

5:24 Hand touch = Shut up dear I'm psychologising

[sylviabombs15]

Tooby is a fucking legend.

so is david buss

and the dawk

[burnthesystem11]

cont from previous post -- conception of cognitive architecture these things would not exist. However, they are very real. The Standard Social Science model is also an erroneous claim; a rhetorical device to create a false dichotomy between their view and "the blank slate". No, I am pretty sure some people that argue against them in the field believe in evolution, just not their claims. Claims that seem astounding but upon close inspection are nothing more than platitudes.

[burnthesystem11]

Evo psych is a flawed enterprise. Zero empirical evidence to support their claim that cognitively impenetrable encapsulated modules exist. The brain is not localized in the strong sense that would support the claim of Modularity of Mind. Overzealous application of Darwinism.

Specific domains?? What is that? Ok, we can create domains - but such categories are subjective in the realm of human behavior.

Phantom limbs, cross talk between sensory modalities in Synesthetes with the evo psyc

[whatupcuzzzz]

@OscarBaldwin Our ancestors nursed, had two sexes, hunted, gathered, chose mates, used tools, had color vision, bled when wounded, were predated upon, were subject to viral infections, were incapacitated from injuries, had deleterious recessives and so were subject to inbreeding depression if they mated with siblings, fought with each other, lived in a biotic environment with felids, snakes, and plant toxins, etc.

[mg1617s1]

wow this video says so much truth!!!! wow wow wow very true.

[IgorMikeshin]

Cosmides: "It's shockin!"

Not any more, Prof. Leda. Because of your work

[Roleren]

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die" Max Planc So true!

[hagsmunamadurinn]

@hagsmunamadurinn I have recanted my former views

[martinnolan88]

@hagsmunamadurinn she is right though.

[niriop]

Reason does this; they get people on and they force them to bash socialism; they even made Hitchens, a staunch socialist, do it as well. It's a dumb appeal to authority.