Cosmides and Tooby: EP Primer, Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

Debauching the mind: Evolutionary psychology's past and present
The Standard Social Science Model
Back to Basics

Principle 1. The brain is a physical system. It functions as a computer. Its circuits are designed to generate behavior that is appropriate to your environmental circumstances.

Principle 2. Our neural circuits were designed by natural selection to solve problems that our ancestors faced during our species' evolutionary history.

Principle 3. Consciousness is just the tip of the iceberg; most of what goes on in your mind is hidden from you. As a result, your conscious experience can mislead you into thinking that our circuitry is simpler that it really is. Most problems that you experience as easy to solve are very difficult to solve -- they require very complicated neural circuitry.

Principle 4. Different neural circuits are specialized for solving different adaptive problems.

Principle 5. Our modern skulls house a stone age mind.

UNDERSTANDING THE DESIGN OF ORGANISMS

Adaptationist Logic and Evolutionary Psychology
Phylogenetic versus adaptationist explanations
Why does structure reflect function?
Knowledge of adaptive function is necessary for carving nature at the joints
Design evidence
Nature and nurture: An adaptationist perspective
Focus on architecture
Evolutionary psychology is not behavior genetics
Joint product of genes and environment
Present at birth?
Is domain-specificity politically incorrect?
"Innate" is not the opposite of "learned"
Specialized or general purpose?
More nature allows more nurture
What evolutionary psychology is not
Reasoning instincts: An example

Acknowledgements
Further reading
References