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Can Behaviors Be Adaptations?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Catherine Driscoll
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Abstract

Kim Sterelny and Paul Griffiths (Sterelny 1992, Sterelny and Griffiths 1999) have argued that sociobiology is unworkable because it requires that human behaviors can be adaptations; however, behaviors produced by a functionalist psychology do not meet Lewontin's quasi-independence criterion and therefore cannot be adaptations. Consequently, an evolutionary psychology—which regards psychological mechanisms as adaptations—should replace sociobiology. I address two interpretations of their argument. I argue that the strong interpretation fails because functionalist psychology need not prevent behaviors from evolving independently, and it relies on too strong an interpretation of the quasi-independence criterion. The weaker interpretation does not undermine sociobiology, and evolutionary psychology would be vulnerable to the same criticism. Finally, I offer reasons to think that both mental mechanisms and behaviors can be adaptations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , January 2004 , pp. 16 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

Many thanks to Stephen Stich for numerous comments on earlier drafts of this paper; to Karen Neander and Ted Sider for their very helpful remarks; and to several anonymous reviewers who made comments on an earlier submitted version.

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