Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:41:51.700Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Belief in evolved belief systems: Artifact of a limited evolutionary model?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

Tyler J. Wereha  and
Timothy P. Racine
Tyler J. Wereha
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada. tjw4@sfu.catracine@sfu.ca
Timothy P. Racine
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada. tjw4@sfu.catracine@sfu.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Belief in evolved belief systems stems from using a population-genetic model of evolution that misconstrues the developmental relationship between genes and behaviour, confuses notions of “adapted” and “adaptive,” and ignores the fundamental role of language in the development of human beliefs. We suggest that theories about the evolution of belief would be better grounded in a developmental model of evolution.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 6 , December 2009 , pp. 537 - 538
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Callebaut, W., Müller, G. B. & Newman, S. A. (2007) The organismic systems approach: Evo-devo and the streamlining of the naturalistic agenda. In: Integrating evolution and development: From theory to practice, ed. Sansom, R. & Brandon, R. N., pp. 25–92. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottlieb, G. & Lickliter, R. (2007) Probabilistic epigenesis. Developmental Science 10:1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Racine, T. P., Wereha, T. J. & Leavens, D. A. (forthcoming) To what extent nonhuman primates are intersubjective and why. In: Moving ourselves, moving others: The role of (e)motion in intersubjectivity, ed. Foolen, A., Lüdtke, U., Zlatev, J. & Racine, T. P.. John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Robert, J. S. (2002) How developmental is evolutionary developmental biology? Biology and Philosophy 17:591–611.Google Scholar
Wereha, T. J. & Racine, T. P. (2009) Evolutionary psychology at a crossroads? A review of Moral psychology, volume 1: The evolution of morality: Adaptations and innateness. Journal of Research on Character Education 6:95–99.Google Scholar