An Anthropological-philosophical Critique Of Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychology is a new branch of modern western psychology,which is the result of the evolutionary way of thinking and motives of psychology, which pursues the scientific historical joint effects. Evolutionary psychology denies the human consciousness which is, on the one hand, as the ontological foundation of psychology, and on the other hand as people's distinctive features. Thus, human beings evolved into the physical pictures of the naturalistic world view, and are consistent with the general logic of biological evolution. Thus, the logic for mental evolution, or rather, the historical genesis of human consciousness, is the logic for physical evolution in the sense of biology. This constitutes the logic of the premise of evolutionary psychology theory of errors. They need the serious response in theory. Based on this consideration, trying to sort out the historical clues to evolutionary psychology and reveal the basis of the logical thought of evolutionary psychology, this dissertation emphasizes the anthropological-philosophy of human existence, and the fact that people get rich on how to understand the thought thread, which reveals the mental evolution of the body which is followed by the different logic. As a starting point to the development background of evolutionary psychology, by questioning the logic of the premise, this paper taps on the misunderstanding in the research theory which is that the logic for mental evolution is consistent with the logic for physical evolution, revealing that evolutionary psychology research program cannot do themselves as evolutionary psychologists claim it, a new psychology "revolution". From the new finding in the anthropological-philosophy, this paper makes a clear distinction between people and animals, reveals the dual character of the human existence in the history process, and deepens the theory confirming the fact that the cultural evolution or the mental evolution has its own logic, and also criticizes the evolutionary psychology research program and its historical and theoretical significance. The conclusion suggests that for psychology to find its own ultimate goal and to acquire its authentic being as an independent discipline, it must go self-consciously beyond Darwinism as its theoretical framework. Besides Introduction and Conclusion, this dissertation includes seven parts of the body.Introduction . This section mainly elucidates the theoretical framework, the thinkingt process of the research proposal and the objectives and significances of this study.Partâ… . Firstly, from the general knowledge of the theory of evolution to understand the basic theory of biological evolution, this dissertation investigates the far-reaching implications of psychology. Secondly, respectively from Spencer's evolutionary psychology, comparative psychology, child psychology, functional psychology, which are the four landmark events of psychology, this essay elaborates on the theory of evolution achieving in psychology.Partâ…¡. Evolutionary psychology applies the basic principles of the theory of evolution and the latest modern scientific research results to explain the cognitive psychology. It systematically explains the nature, origins, structure, function, characterization and the theory application of human psychology, which adds to the understanding and demonstrates the historical dimension of the results of various psychological mechanisms in cognitive psychology. Evolutionary psychology would appear as a new science in the context of the psychological literature and self-confidently to think that it has finally found the truth foundation of psychology, and at least it is apparently gratifying to enrich the background of contemporary literature of psychology. Based on the basic theory and the basic characteristics of the psychological mechanism, this dissertation analyses the testing methods of the evolutionary hypothesis and data sources. Controlling adaptive master, the basic principles of evolutionary psychology will be summarized as follows: 1. Evolutionary psychologists believe that the evolutionary psychology is one of psychological reasonable form, which would mean that psychology is biology category. 2. The main problem in the human evolution is the existence and reproduction problems. 3. There is a general intrinsic human nature, the psychological mechanism which are evolved into solving adaptive problems faced. 4. Functional analysis methodology is the psychological criteria for thought.Partâ…¢. The basic idea of evolutionary psychology is as the following: the laws of the mental field facts and its historical occurrence that comply with the laws of biological species and their changing process, in short, that the logic for mental evolution is the logic for physical evolution in the sense of biology.In order to achieve better understanding, this dissertation divides the theory into three stages. First, in the biological sense we can call the laws of biological species and their changing process the logic for physical evolution. Darwin's theory of evolution is the explanation of the logic of the system, and in this range has its completely theoretical explanatory power. Second, the same can be established that is the fact of the psychology field and its structure are not fixed, but a process of historical occurrence. Borrowing the language of the theory of evolution, we can call the laws of the psychology field facts and their changing process the logic for mental evolution. Third, we can thus propose the following questions: whether the logic for mental evolution and the logic for physical evolution are the same logic. If we make the theory of evolution as ideological basis of psychology, we should demonstrate that the logic for mental evolution and the logic for physical evolution are the same logic. On the contrary, if the logic for mental evolution does not conform with the logic for physical evolution, then, the theory of evolution will not be considered as the ideological basis of psychology, based on which, any forms of psychological research programs can not achieve its purpose.Partâ…£. Since the theory of evolution being created, whether within psychology, or in disciplines other than psychology, for a variety of academic practices based on biological evolution as a scientific research about people, there are different forms of skepticism and critical voices, which are or consciously, or unconsciously, either directly or indirectly, or scattered, or systematic, but in any case are common. If we ask this question"the logic for mental evolution conforms with the logic for physical evolution"by taking the narrow scope of psychology, such as Biology or anthropology, and watching the vast and different forms of the human mind and its historical achievements, then we get an understanding of human existence, according to its dimensions and characteristics of the rich line of thought. Psychology should be able to derive inspiration from other subjects, and complete its arguments on this issue, then fully understand the relationship between psychology and evolutionary psychology as a biological theory which should be valuable and meaning for psychology: As a biological theory, the theory of evolution, trying to clarify the evolution of organism under the action of the blind forces of nature evolution, is only applies to understand the natural history of human.Partâ…¤. Marx once said, we can differentiate human and animal by the sense, religion or whatever things. This discussion fully reflects the rich meaning of human existence and dimensions of diversity of its existence. Human existence has the dual attributes: as a natural course of human history, the physical attributes, and as a social history of civilization, the mental attributes. The evolution of the physical attributes is "accidental, passive, blind", but the evolution of the mental attributes is "optional, active, purposeful". Gene mutation is full of chance, not a human being's independent decision. People who for the process of natural selection is passive and do not have freedom, then the results of this evolution are aimless from the human point of view. However, because of the existence of human self-consciousness, the evolution of the mental attributes highlights the power of human innovation and the cultural world is full of richness, subtlety, diversity and variety.Partâ…¥. Anthropological philosophy attaches great importance to the "people issues" discussion, and emphasizes the human uniqueness and cultural creativity, which also contains a lot of thought for psychology. Especially Cassirer, in his questioning on the issue of people, makes a lot of valuable inspiration for the psychology. Firstly, in Cassirer's anthropological-philosophy, he makes a clear distinction between humans and animals, and makes a clear distinction between consciousness and physical reality, then attempts to understand the human mind or consciousness and its occurred process of history. Secondly, passing on the question "what is human", he defines people as a "symbol of the animals", and then indicates that the mental evolution meets its own logic, rather than blindly uses the logic for physical evolution into the explanation of the mental evolution. Cassirer not only in the negative sense, clearly doubt the belief about"the logic for mental evolution conforms with the logic for physical"in the mainstream psychology, but also in a positive sense, clearly conscious that the mental evolution meets its own logic, which are used to criticize evolutionary psychology and its blindness of the research programs logic, and then reveals that the popular evolutionary psychology cannot achieve crazy asseveration that is"evolutionary psychology can provide a unified theory for psychology".Partâ…¦. The conclusion suggests that if psychology want to find its own actual goal and acquire its authentic being during the process of achieving that target, then get rid of the bondage by other subjects, it must go self-consciously beyond Darwinism as its thinking framework and make psychology wake up from the blindness of its history.