04: Biology and Human Nature

This series of seminars will discuss the prospects for an evolutionary theory of human nature, drawing on re-cent monographs on this issue by both Dupre and Sterelny. Neither of us are optimistic about the pros-pects of so-called „evolutionary psychology“, a pro-gram recently defended by Stephen Pinker, and origi-nating in the work of John Tooby and Leda Cosmides. In Dupre’s case, this view of evolutionary psychology is part of a broader scepticism about the prospects of a completely science-driven view of human nature. Sterelny, in contrast, has no such reservations about the role of science in general and evolutionary biology in delivering a full theory of human nature. Rather, he defends a view of human cognitive evolution in which cultural evolution, environmental instability and selec-tion for developmental plasticity are of fundamental importance.