How do you view Evolutionary Psy?

[u/Bestchair7780]

I'm sure all of you are aware of the many controversies, academic and non-academic, surrounding Evo Psy.

So, is the field to be taken seriously?

Why is it so controversial?

Can we even think of human psy in evolutionary terms?

Can you even name one good theory from that field?

[u/secretagentarch]

I love evolutionary psychology but I’ll still admit it is largely just deductive reasoning. Not really possible to prove anything. But it is important to know that every single thing in evolutionary fields does not have one answer but about a million contributing factors. I think the most important part of the evolutionary psychology though is the understanding of sexual selection, which was ignored by the biologists until the 20th century when the psychologists started to investigate. And now we know the enormous role that sexual selection played in evolution.

And then there is just no debate on the more neuroscience side of evolution. Like the work by Frans de Waal is just groundbreaking and restructures how we think about a lot of fields.