Content

Department of Philosophy   Northern Illinois University
David J. Buller
Philosophy of Mind: Evolutionary Psychology
PHIL 540, Section 1
Spring 1998


Course Description Required Readings Course Requirements
Course Schedule Supplementary Reading Related Links

Course Description:

 This seminar will focus on "evolutionary psychology," the new field that attempts to understand human psychology through the theoretical apparatus of evolutionary biology.  The seminar will begin with an overview of the current state of the genetic theory of evolution by natural selection, which evolutionary psychology takes as its theoretical foundation.  >From there we will move to a critical examination of selected theoretical and empirical work in evolutionary psychology on the following topics:  the psychological foundations of culture, social cognition, mating and sexual behavior, the biological basis of sex differences, the evolution of language, the evolution of altruism and morality, and the idea of a "human nature."


Required Readings (books available at The Junction Bookstore):

Jerome H. Barkow, et al. (eds.), The Adapted Mind:  Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (second edition)
David L. Hull, "On Human Nature," in The Metaphysics of Evolution (on reserve)
Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works
Matt Ridley, The Origins of Virtue:  Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation


Course Requirements and Grading:
  • Every seminar participant must have finished reading The Selfish Gene (including all endnotes!) by the first seminar meeting on Wednesday, January 14.
  • Every seminar participant must come to each seminar meeting prepared to engage in detailed discussion of the assigned reading.  Although participation in seminar meetings does not constitute a weighted percentage of the final course grade, participation (or failure to participate) will nonetheless affect each seminar participant's final grade.
  • A 1500 word essay must be turned in as soon as possible in the semester, but it is a necessary condition for passing the class that this essay be turned in no later than February 25.  (Roughly 20% of the final grade)
  • A rewritten version of the above essay (not to exceed 2500 words) must be turned in as soon as possible in the semester, but it is a necessary condition for passing the class that this rewrite be turned in no later than April 8.  (Roughly 35% of the final grade)
  • A 3500 word research paper must be turned in by the end of the semester.  (Roughly 45% of the final grade)

Plagiarism Statement:"The attempt of any student to present as his or her own work that which he or she has not produced is regarded by the faculty and administration as a serious offense. Students are considered to have cheated if they copy the work of another during an examination or turn in a paper or an assignment written, in whole or in part, by someone else. Students are guilty of plagiarism, intentional or not, if they copy material from books, magazines, or other sources or if they paraphrase ideas from such sources without acknowledging them. Students guilty of, or assisting others in, either cheating or plagiarism on an assignment, quiz, or examination may receive a grade of F for the course involved and may be suspended or dismissed from the university." Northern Illinois University Undergraduate Catalog.


Course Schedule:

1-14    Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

1-21     Cosmides, Tooby, and Barkow, "Introduction: Evolutionary Psychology and Conceptual Integration" (in Barkow)
            Symons, "On the Use and Misuse of Darwinism in the Study of Human Behavior" (in Barkow)

1-28    Tooby and Cosmides, "The Psychological Foundations of Culture" (in Barkow)

2-4       Cosmides and Tooby, "Cognitive Adaptations for Social Exchange" (in Barkow)

2-11    Buss, "Mate Preference Mechanisms: Consequences for Partner Choice and Intrasexual Competition" (in Barkow)
           Ellis, "The Evolution of Sexual Attraction: Evaluative Mechanisms in Women" (in Barkow)

2-18    Wilson and Daly, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Chattel" (in Barkow)

2-25    Mann, "Nurturance or Negligence: Maternal Psychology and Behavioral Preference Among Preterm Twins" (in Barkow)
           Fernald, "Human Maternal Vocalizations to Infants as Biologically Relevant Signals: An Evolutionary Perspective" (in Barkow)

3-4      Pinker and Bloom, "Natural Language and Natural Selection" (in Barkow)

3-11    NO CLASS

3-18     Pinker, How the Mind Works, Chapters 1-2

3-25     Pinker, How the Mind Works, Chapters 3-4

4-1       Pinker, How the Mind Works, Chapters 5-6

4-8       Pinker, How the Mind Works, Chapters 7-8

4-15     Hull, "On Human Nature," in The Metaphysics of Evolution*, and "Species, Subspecies and Races" (manuscript*)

4-22      Ridley, The Origins of Virtue, Prologue - Chapter 6

4-29      Ridley, The Origins of Virtue, Chapters 7-13

* On Reserve at Founders Library

Suggested Supplementary Readings:

On Evolutionary Theory

  • Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (Norton, 1987)
  • David Hull, The Metaphysics of Evolution (SUNY Press, 1989) [on reserve]
  • Mark Ridley, Evolution (2nd edition, Blackwell Science, 1996)
  • Elliott Sober (ed.), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology (2nd edition, MIT Press, 1994) [on reserve]
  • Elliott Sober, The Nature of Selection (U of Chicago, 1993)
  • Elliott Sober, Philosophy of Biology (Westview, 1993)
  • George Williams, Adaptation and Natural Selection (Princeton UP, 1966)
  • George Williams, The Pony Fish's Glow (Basic, 1997)
On Evolutionary Psychology
  • David M. Buss, "Evolutionary Psychology: A New Paradigm for Psychological Science," Psychological Inquiry 6 (1995), pp. 1-30
  • Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, "From Evolution to Behavior: Evolutionary Psychology as the Missing Link," in John Dupre (ed.), The Latest on the Best: Essays on Evolution and Optimality, pp. 277-306 (MIT, 1987)
  • Donald Symons, "If We're All Darwinians, What's the Fuss About?", in Charles Crawford, et al. (eds.), Sociobiology and Psychology: Ideas, Issues and Applications, pp. 121-146 (Erlbaum, 1987)
Popularizations of Evolutionary Psychology
  • Mary Batten, Sexual Strategies: How Females Choose Their Mates (Putnam, 1992)
  • Matt Ridley, The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (Penguin, 1993)
  • Robert Wright, The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life (Vintage, 1994)
On Sex
  • Elizabeth Rice Allgeier and Michael W. Wiederman, "How Useful Is Evolutionary Psychology for Understanding Contemporary Human Sexual Behavior?" Annual Review of Sex Research 5 (1994), pp. 218-256
  • David Buss, The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating (Basic, 1994)
  • David Buss and Neil Malamuth (eds.), Sex, Power, Conflict: Evolutionary and Feminist Perspectives (Oxford UP, 1996) [on reserve]
  • Bruce Ellis and Donald Symons, "Sex Differences in Sexual Fantasy: An Evolutionary Psychological Approach," in Laura Betzig (ed.), Human Nature (Oxford, 1997) [on reserve]
  • R. V. Short, "The Evolution of Human Reproduction," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 195 (1976), pp. 3-24
  • Donald Symons, The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Oxford UP, 1979)
On Language
  • Robin Dunbar, Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language (Harvard UP, 1996)
  • Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct (HarperPerennial, 1994)
On Emotions
  • Paul E. Griffiths, What Emotions Really Are (U of Chicago Press, 1997)
  • John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, "The Past Explains the Present: Emotional Adaptations and the Structure of Ancestral Environments," Ethology and Sociobiology 11 (1990), pp. 375-424
On Aggression and Violence
  • David Buss and Neil Malamuth (eds.), Sex, Power, Conflict: Evolutionary and Feminist Perspectives (Oxford UP, 1996)
  • David Buss and Todd Shackelford, "Human Aggression in Evolutionary Psychological Perspective," Clinical Psychology Review 17 (1997), pp. 605-619
  • Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, Homicide (de Gruyter, 1988)
  • Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, "Child Abuse and Other Risks of Not Living with Both Parents," in Laura Betzig (ed.), Human Nature (Oxford, 1997) [on reserve]
  • Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence (Houghton Mifflin, 1996)
On The Origins of Values
  • Frans de Waal, Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals (Harvard UP, 1996)

LINKS to Related Sites:

The Unofficial Richard Dawkins Web Page

The Unofficial Steven Pinker Web Page

Steven Pinker's Web Page for How the Mind Works

Leda Cosmides and John Tooby's "Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer"

The Center for Evolutionary Psychology at UCSB

H. Allen Orr, "Darwin Versus Intelligent Design (Again)" (review of Behe's Darwin's Black Box (Orr is a geneticist at U of Rochester))

H. Allen Orr, "Dennett's Strange Idea" ( review of Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea)

H. Allen Orr, "The Softer Side of Sociobiology" (review of Ridley's The Origins of Virtue)

The Evolutionist

The Official Website of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society