Henry Plotkin
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By: Harvard University Press
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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Our evolutionary roots control the way we learn. 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 12 people found this review helpful.
Meaty and intellectual exploration of the evolutionary basis of knowledge and learning, a subject known as evolutionary epistemology. We have built-in filters and mechanisms that control our learning, resulting in quirky but predictable oddities in our perceptions and abilities.
--Richard Brodie, author, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Mem
knowledge from an evolutionary point of view 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.
In this remarkable book, Plotkin attempts to unify philosophical and evolutionary approaches to the concept of `knowledge'. He examines the various ways one can think about this concept and concludes that there is more to it than only philosophical epistemology. That's why the author tries to study knowledge in a broader perspective. In a well written, erudite manner, he guides the reader through philosophy, psychology and evolutionary biology.
After a short introduction, Plotkin devotes a chapter to sketching the theory of evolution and its natural outcome: adaptation. He continues with the statement that the concepts of evolutionary theory have far broader applicability. They can be used to explain aspects of how our immune system works, the organisation of our brain, or the way science works. Plotkin introduces a model that can be used to study all these different subjects from the same evolutionary point of view. After these chapters we are well prepared to follow Plotkin in the application of his theoretical framework to the origin of knowledge.
The fourth chapter contains the core of Plotkin's argumentation. Here he states that knowledge (also behavioural knowledge) and adaptation are closely related concepts. In fact, he maintains that all adaptations can be viewed as a form of knowledge, and knowledge as an adaptation. With this in mind he examines different kinds of behaviour. He discusses behaviour without thought, also known as instincts. Instincts are adaptations, evolved to cope with predictable changes of the environment. However, when the environment changes in an unpredictable manner, organisms need more than instincts. According to Plotkin, our intelligence is an adaptation which makes it possible to handle such unpredictable changes.
Plotkin believes in the modularity of the mind. This theory states that the brain contains certain modules involved in processing modular-specific information. The most famous example is Chomsky's language module. The knowledge obtained through these modules has epistemic boundaries. Plotkin finds evidence for this point of view when he examines our ability to reason logically, the development of language, emotions and culture. He states that because of these boundaries, our intelligence is also restricted. We cannot learn anything we want. In our struggle to cope with the unpredictable changes in our environment, we are condemned to make failures.
In the last chapter we turn to philosophy. Hume stated that induction can never lead to reliable knowledge. Plotkin agrees and confines that evolutionary epistemology cannot say anything about this reliability problem. Kant maintained that we can only know things in the way they are modulated by the mind, hence we cannot obtain true knowledge. Here Plotkin does not agree. Evolution provides the evidence for the fact that the surviving organisms `got it right' most of the time. So we are capable of generating knowledge that is reliable (enough). In fact we are still getting better, we can even see a glimpse of the future nowadays.
I think this is a great book for everyone interested in the combination evolutionary biology and philosophy. It isn't an easy read, but the author developed some really great ideas, worth the effort. This doesn't say one has to agree with the author on all points. I found it very hard to deal with the adaptation=knowledge idea and his argumentation wasn't always clear to me. I'm also not as modularity minded as Plotkin is and I think he relies heavily on this principle.
In spite of my doubts, I really enjoyed reading this book. For me it was a nice acquaintance with epistemology from a surprising perspective.
Editorial Review:
Bringing together evolutionary biology, psychology, and philosophy, Henry Plotkin presents a new science of knowledge that traces an unbreakable link between instinct and our ability to know. Since our ability to know our world depends primarily on what we call intelligence, intelligence must be understood as an extension of instinct. The capacity for knowledge is deeply rooted in our biology and, in a special sense, is shared by all living things.
