Date of Award
5-3-2017
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Daniel Weiskopf
Second Advisor
Neil Van Leeuwen
Third Advisor
Andrea Scarantino
Fourth Advisor
David Washburn
Abstract
Evolutionary Psychology (EP) tends to be associated with a Massively Modular (MM) cognitive architecture. I argue that EP favors a non-MM cognitive architecture. The main point of dispute is whether central cognition, such as abstract reasoning, exhibits domain-general properties. Partisans of EP argue that domain-specific modules govern central cognition, for it is unclear how the cognitive mind could have evolved domain-generality. In response, I defend a distinction between exogenous and endogenous selection pressures, according to which exogenous pressures tend to select for domain-specificity, whereas the latter, endogenous pressures, select in favor of domain-generality. I draw on models from brain network theory to motivate this distinction, and also to establish that a domain-general, non-MM cognitive architecture is the more parsimonious adaptive solution to endogenous pressures.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/10063021
Recommended Citation
Lundie, Michael, "Darwinian Domain-Generality: The Role of Evolutionary Psychology in the Modularity Debate." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2017.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/10063021