Evolutionary psychology

The evolutionary story suggests that our moral beliefs evolved organically to select for what would keep a community alive. That our morals do not approach an objective truth, but are merely adaptively fit. This lends to an argument that since we are not evolved to know the truth, our morals may be totally invalid, and so we cannot rationally believe them. This argument that we cannot trust our morals is flawed. The debunker claims that since evolution selects for fitness rather than moral truth…

2b. The critique presented by Gould and Lewontin in the Spandrels paper describes the shortcomings of the adaptationist program that had been the predominant path of evolutionary thought for decades. Adaptationists see natural selection as the only and all-powerful force that can overcome any constraint to species' traits, and that evolution in turn relies exclusively on natural selection. In challenging this concept of adaptation, Gould and Lewontin are not denying the existence evolution by…

Molecule-To-Man evolution has been taught as fact in public schools for as long as many can remember but why? There are many theories of how humans came to be, although widely accepted evolution is only another theory. Evolution is “where changes occur in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift” (dictionary.com, Evolution)). Although evolution has some scientific background, it should only be taught in…

Charles Darwin, associated with Cambridge University, revolutionized science with his theories of evolution. His ideas birthed new ways of understanding how species came to be. According to Darwin , the key driving force behind evolution is natural selection, which occurs under environmental pressures leading to speciation or changes within species. It favours the traits most adept to surviving in an environment’s conditions and weeds out those that are not through the four aspects of natural…

it is often envisioned as individuals competing against individuals, where the fittest species collectively sends the other species to extinction. In ‘The Origin of Species’, Charles Darwin uses the term ‘Natural Selection’ to describe the key evolutionary process. The phrase ‘Survival of the Fittest’, although typically attributed to Darwin, was introduced by Herbert Spencer and then adopted by Darwin in a later book. Darwin wrote: “This preservation, during the battle for life, of…

One misconception of Darwinian evolutionary theory is that evolution is at a random chance. Natural selection is actually the stated opposite of random chance (Ryan p. 50). Although genetic drift and mutation play roles in evolution as causing chance events that result in a change in population, that does not mean that evolution as a whole is due to randomness. Natural selection is the greatest force of modern evolution, and is completed by the passing on of successful genes, not by random…

adaptationist programme is a narrow view of evolution and should be expanded to incorporate other explanations. They claim that one of the key adaptationist arguments is “if one adaptive program fails, try another” (Gould & Lewontin 586). In this way, evolutionary biology focuses exclusively on researching and publishing material on adaptation. They propose that scientists should instead explore other avenues of discovery that may lead to alternative explanations, explanations that they…

Monkeys, birds, and fish have similarities to humans by how their skeleton is built, but that doesn’t mean they are our ancestors. Darwin needed evolution as a reason to live, so he created something that he believed was real. Evolution has been something that nonreligious people have made up to follow, but there isn’t actual written proof that it ever happened. Some scientists have disproved it; the Bible is completely against it and in mythology it links back to the Bible. There…

Darwinism and natural selection are synonyms for this theory. Charles Darwin was thought to be the father of the evolutionary theory, even though he had help developing his theory. The idea of Evolution has been around since Ancient Greece. According to Roger Patterson, author of Evolution Exposed, natural selection is how a species changes, or evolves, in short periods…

In Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Darwin identifies two different methods of adaptation that take place amongst organic species: natural and artificial selection. Instinctually, one may declare something as “natural” when it has not been tampered by direct human interference, and “artificial” when human intervention has changed the physical condition of that original characteristic. When comparing the two, many tend to favor the ease of efficiency that artificial selection has to…