I’m guessing that most laypeople here identify Ev Psych with the sort of explanations offered in Pinker’s How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate. Are those the kinds of explanations that you consider to be pseudoscience?
I haven’t read Blank Slate. What little I remember of the fraction I read of How the Mind Works made the case for a materialistic and reductionist account of the Mind, and pointed out that the Human Mind evolved by natural selection. I am in complete agreement on both points—those viewpoints did not originate with Evolutionary Psychology, and EP does not have the sole responsibility for defending them.
So, since I don’t know the explanations you are talking about, I can’t say for sure they are pseudo-science. But I do know of a demarcation criterion. Did Pinker suggest how his explanations could be tested by experiment? Did he report the results of experiments? If not, then he was either doing pseudo-science or philosophy. Sorry, I don’t have a demarcation criterion to distinguish those two. But, if someone says they are doing philosophy, I usually give them the benefit of the doubt.
I’m guessing that most laypeople here identify Ev Psych with the sort of explanations offered in Pinker’s How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate. Are those the kinds of explanations that you consider to be pseudoscience?
I haven’t read Blank Slate. What little I remember of the fraction I read of How the Mind Works made the case for a materialistic and reductionist account of the Mind, and pointed out that the Human Mind evolved by natural selection. I am in complete agreement on both points—those viewpoints did not originate with Evolutionary Psychology, and EP does not have the sole responsibility for defending them.
So, since I don’t know the explanations you are talking about, I can’t say for sure they are pseudo-science. But I do know of a demarcation criterion. Did Pinker suggest how his explanations could be tested by experiment? Did he report the results of experiments? If not, then he was either doing pseudo-science or philosophy. Sorry, I don’t have a demarcation criterion to distinguish those two. But, if someone says they are doing philosophy, I usually give them the benefit of the doubt.