Evolutionary epistemology - Wikipedia Evolutionary epistemology From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Ambiguous term applied to several concepts This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Evolutionary epistemology" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Part of a series on Evolutionary biology Darwin's finches by John Gould Key topics Introduction to evolution Common descent Evidence Processes and outcomes Population genetics Variation Diversity Mutation Natural selection Adaptation Polymorphism Genetic drift Gene flow Speciation Adaptive radiation Co-operation Coevolution Coextinction Divergence Convergence Parallel evolution Extinction Natural history Origin of life History of life Timeline of evolution Human evolution Phylogeny Biodiversity Biogeography Classification Evolutionary taxonomy Cladistics Transitional fossil Extinction event History of evolutionary theory Overview Renaissance Before Darwin Darwin Origin of Species Before synthesis Modern synthesis Molecular evolution Evo-devo Current research History of speciation History of paleontology (timeline) Fields and applications Applications of evolution Biosocial criminology Ecological genetics Evolutionary aesthetics Evolutionary anthropology Evolutionary computation Evolutionary ecology Evolutionary economics Evolutionary epistemology Evolutionary ethics Evolutionary game theory Evolutionary linguistics Evolutionary medicine Evolutionary neuroscience Evolutionary physiology Evolutionary psychology Experimental evolution Phylogenetics Paleontology Selective breeding Speciation experiments Sociobiology Systematics Universal Darwinism Social implications Evolution as fact and theory Social effects Creation–evolution controversy Objections to evolution Level of support  Evolutionary biology portal  Category Related topics v t e Evolutionary epistemology refers to three distinct topics: (1) the biological evolution of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans, (2) a theory that knowledge itself evolves by natural selection, and (3) the study of the historical discovery of new abstract entities such as abstract number or abstract value that necessarily precede the individual acquisition and usage of such abstractions. As a branch of inquiry in epistemology, evolutionary epistemology lies at the crossroads of philosophy and evolutionary biology.[1] Contents 1 Cognition in biological evolution 2 Growth of knowledge 3 Process of discovering new abstract entities 4 See also 5 References 6 Sources 7 External links Cognition in biological evolution[edit] "Evolutionary epistemology" can refer to a branch of inquiry in epistemology that applies the concepts of biological evolution to the growth of animal and human cognition. It argues that the mind is in part genetically determined and that its structure and function reflect adaptation, a nonteleological process of interaction between the organism and its environment. A cognitive trait tending to increase inclusive fitness in a given population should therefore grow more common over time, and a trait tending to prevent its carriers from passing on their genes should show up less and less frequently. Growth of knowledge[edit] See also: Growth of knowledge "Evolutionary epistemology" can also refer to a theory that applies the concepts of biological evolution to the growth of human knowledge, and argues that units of knowledge themselves, particularly scientific theories, evolve according to selection. In this case, a theory—like the germ theory of disease—becomes more or less credible according to changes in the body of knowledge surrounding it. One of the hallmarks of evolutionary epistemology is the notion that empirical testing alone does not justify the pragmatic value of scientific theories, but rather that social and methodological processes select those theories with the closest "fit" to a given problem. The mere fact that a theory has survived the most rigorous empirical tests available does not, in the calculus of probability, predict its ability to survive future testing. Karl Popper used Newtonian physics as an example of a body of theories so thoroughly confirmed by testing as to be considered unassailable, but which were nevertheless overturned by Einstein's insights into the nature of space-time. For the evolutionary epistemologist, all theories are true only provisionally, regardless of the degree of empirical testing they have survived.[2] Process of discovering new abstract entities[edit] "Evolutionary epistemology" can also refer to the opposite of (onto)genetic epistemology, namely phylogenetic epistemology as the historical discovery and reification of abstractions that necessarily precedes the learning of such abstractions by individuals. Piaget dismissed this possibility, stating "The fundamental hypothesis of genetic epistemology is that there is a parallelism between the progress made in the logical and rational organization of knowledge and the corresponding formative psychological processes. Well, now, if that is our hypothesis, what will be our field of study? Of course the most fruitful, most obvious field of study would be reconstituting human history: the history of human thinking in prehistoric man. Unfortunately, we are not very well informed about the psychology of Neanderthal man or about the psychology of Homo siniensis of Teilhard de Chardin. Since this field of biogenesis is not available to us, we shall do as biologists do and turn to ontogenesis. Nothing could be more accessible to study than the ontogenesis of these notions. There are children all around us." [3] Piaget was mistaken in so quickly dismissing the study of phylogenetic epistemology, as there is much historical data available about the origins and evolution of the various notational systems that reify different kinds of abstract entity. Popper gave its first comprehensive treatment in his 1970 article "Sketch of an Evolutionary Epistemology",[4] after Donald T. Campbell had coined the phrase in a letter to Popper [5] in 1963. Campbell wrote on evolutionary epistemology in 1974;[6] Piaget alluded to it in 1974[7] and described the concept as one of five possible theories in The Origins of Intelligence in Children (1936).[8] See also[edit] Genetic epistemology – study of the origins of knowledge Memetics – Study of self-replicating units of culture Evolutionary psychology – Application of evolutionary theory to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations Gerhard Vollmer Konrad Lorenz – Austrian zoologist Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge Donald T. Campbell – American social scientist Multiple discovery – Hypothesis about scientific discoveries and inventions Universal Darwinism – An attempt to expand the application of Darwinian evolutionary theory to other fields Peter Carruthers References[edit] ^ "Evolutionary Epistemology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 30 June 2020. ^ Popper, 1972.[page needed] ^ Piaget, 1974.[page needed] ^ Popper, 1972, chap. 2, sect. 16 ^ Campbell, 1963 ^ Schilpp, 1974. pp. 412–463 ^ Piaget, 1974, p. 13 ^ See p. 14ff Sources[edit] Campbell, D. T., letter to Karl Popper, Popper archive 'Karl-Popper-Sammlung', University of Klagenfurt, box 282, folder 12, see H.-J. Niemann, Popper, Darwin and Biology, in G. Franco (ed.) Handbuch Karl Popper, Springer Nature 2019, 359-380. Harms, William F., Information and Meaning in Evolutionary Processes (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) , 2004 Kress, O. A new approach to cognitive development: ontogenesis and the process of initiation. Evolution and Cognition (1993) Vol 2(4): 319-332. Piaget, J. Genetic Epistemology. 1974 Popper, Karl R. Objective Knowledge, An Evolutionary Approach. Oxford University Press, 1972. Riedl, R. Biology of Knowledge: The Evolutionary Basis of Reason, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1984. Schilpp, P. A., ed. The Philosophy of Karl R. Popper. LaSalle, IL. Open Court. 1974. See Campbell's essay, "Evolutionary Epistemology" on pp.412–463. Toulmin, Stephen Human Understanding: Volume 1: The Collective Use and Evolution of Concepts, 1972. External links[edit] Bradie, Michael; Harms, William (2008-01-04). "Evolutionary Epistemology". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Evolutionary epistemology at PhilPapers Evolutionary epistemology at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project Gontier, N. "Evolutionary epistemology". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Links on Evolutionary Theory and Memetics from Principia Cybernetica Web Selection Theory Bibliography by Gary A. Cziko and Donald T. Campbell v t e Epistemology Epistemologists Thomas Aquinas Augustine of Hippo William Alston Robert Audi A. J. Ayer George Berkeley Laurence BonJour Keith DeRose René Descartes John Dewey Fred Dretske Edmund Gettier Alvin Goldman Nelson Goodman Paul Grice Anil Gupta Susan Haack David Hume Immanuel Kant Søren Kierkegaard Peter Klein Saul Kripke Hilary Kornblith David Lewis John Locke G. E. Moore John McDowell Robert Nozick Alvin Plantinga Plato Duncan Pritchard James Pryor Hilary Putnam W. V. O. Quine Thomas Reid Bertrand Russell Gilbert Ryle Wilfrid Sellars Susanna Siegel Ernest Sosa P. F. Strawson Baruch Spinoza Timothy Williamson Ludwig Wittgenstein Nicholas Wolterstorff Vienna Circle more... Theories Coherentism Constructivism Contextualism Empiricism Evolutionary epistemology Fallibilism Feminist epistemology Fideism Foundationalism Holism Infinitism Innatism Naïve realism Naturalized epistemology Phenomenalism Positivism Rationalism Reductionism Reliabilism Representational realism Skepticism Transcendental idealism Concepts A priori knowledge A posteriori knowledge Analysis Analytic–synthetic distinction Belief Common sense Descriptive knowledge Exploratory thought Gettier problem Induction Internalism and externalism Justification Knowledge Objectivity Privileged access Problem of induction Problem of other minds Perception Procedural knowledge Proposition Regress argument Simplicity Speculative reason Truth more... Related articles Outline of epistemology Faith and rationality Formal epistemology Meta-epistemology Philosophy of perception Philosophy of science Social epistemology Category Task Force Stubs Discussion v t e Philosophy of biology Themes Empiricism Naturalism Pragmatism Reductionism Holism Evolutionary taxonomy Evolution Adaptationism Alternatives to Darwinism Catastrophism Lamarckism Orthogenesis Mutationism Structuralism Spandrel Theistic Vitalism Darwinism Evolutionary epistemology Teleology Tree of life Philosophers of biology John Beatty Lindley Darden Daniel Dennett John Dupré Carla Fehr Marjorie Grene Peter Godfrey-Smith James R. Griesemer Paul E. Griffiths David Hull Hans Jonas Philip Stuart Kitcher Tim Lewens Helen Longino Jane Maienschein Roberta Millstein Sandra Mitchell Susan Oyama Alex Rosenberg Michael Ruse Sahotra Sarkar Elliott Sober Kim Sterelny Alfred I. Tauber Francisco Varela Gerard Verschuuren William C. Wimsatt Biologists Francisco J. Ayala Patrick Bateson Charles Darwin Richard Dawkins Jared Diamond Michael Ghiselin François Jacob Stephen Jay Gould Richard Lewontin Konrad Lorenz Humberto Maturana Ernst Mayr Jacques Monod Denis Noble Joan Roughgarden Rolf Sattler John Maynard Smith Edward O. Wilson Jonas Salk Related Philosophy of mind History of biology Authority control GND: 4135408-4 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evolutionary_epistemology&oldid=997856696" Categories: Epistemological theories Evolution Internalism and externalism Hidden categories: Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from December 2016 Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Articles needing additional references from December 2016 All articles needing additional references Articles with Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy links Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikiquote Languages Català Deutsch Eesti Español فارسی Français Italiano Nederlands Norsk bokmål Русский Українська Edit links This page was last edited on 2 January 2021, at 15:51 (UTC). 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