Darwinian Psychiatry

Book Description

For years, psychiatry has operated without a unified theory of behavior; instead, it has spawned a pluralism of approaches--including biomedical, psychoanalytic, behavioral, and sociocultural models--each with radically different explanations for various clinical disorders. In Darwinian Psychiatry, Michael T. McGuire and Alfonso Troisi provide a conceptual framework for integrating many features of prevailing models. Based on Darwinian theory rather than traditional approaches, the book offers clinicians a fundamentally new perspective for looking at the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Writing from this innovative theoretical position, the authors discuss the origin of pathological conditions, the adaptation of symptoms and syndromes, the biological basis of social relations, and many other key concepts. This groundbreaking book will introduce those who study and are involved in the alleviation of mental suffering to an approach that will lead to radical changes in clinical practice. The authors suggest that when making diagnostic assessments, psychiatrists should evaluate not only the patients' symptoms but also their functional capacities, and that therapeutic interventions should work toward the achievement of biological goals. Providing an essential framework for understanding both everyday human behavior and a range of mental disorders, Darwinian Psychiatry will appeal to all mental health professionals and general readers interested in human psychology and behavior.

Customer Reviews:

A new perspective in psychiatry.......2006-02-25

The title and the table of contents of this book were very interesting and exciting to me. The early pages kept my attention focused as well. But soon the writings became laborious to read. I have a good knowledge of psychiatry and evolution and my problem was not with the content of the book. The sentences were not flowing. I had to strain my mind not to lose tract. Also, the ideas and hypotheses were not lucid and sequential. I often wondered why something is discussed after something else. The logic and connection of concepts were rough and at times not clear. But I enjoyed the book anyway and learned some points from it.

Psychiatry from an Evolutionary Perspective.......2005-07-03

The authors complain that psychiatry is sort of all over the map without a controlling paradigm by which to measure behavior and provide correlated treatments. They state psychiatry is in disarray, with numerous theories and postulates, but no guiding theory upon which to form a model grounded in science. To rescue psychiatry from this abyss, they recommend that Darwinism be used as the new model that not only grounds theory in fact, but provides a clearer correlate between functional diagnosis (signs and symptoms) and suitable treatment (e.g., psychotropics and/or counseling). Does their new paradigm succeed? I'm convinced.

The book is short, a mere 270 pages. It's not intended as an introduction to psychiatry; in fact it presumes a significant acquaintance with most psychiatric concepts. The book intends that these given concepts be reexamined in light of Darwin's theory. Such concepts discussed in this context are: natural selection, adaptation, function, ultimate causation, individual fitness, self-interest, reciprocal altruism, proximate mechanisms, development, traits, learning, culture, and history strategies. The authors' approach is centered in a functional analysis of behavior that gives causal hypotheses and provides from assumptions that conditions will be more meaningfully classified and their contributing factors more rapidly identified (p. 81). Outward behavior gives events that are usually terms of separate genetic, physiological, and psychological mechanisms turn out to be subparts of infrastructures that contribute to specific functions (p. 92).

They state categorically: "Evolutionary models of mental conditions differ from psychiatry's model in a number of ways. Most critically, they are based on a theory of behavior that includes ultimate causes, biological motivations-goals, sexual selection, infrastructures, trait and trait variation, and the social environment. Proximate even6ts, such as genetic mistakes, predispositions, adverse environments, psychosocial stress, wrong or inadequate learning, dysfunctional physiological systems, and intrapsychic conflicts are sometimes, but not always, part of the explanation. Viewed this way, many conditions turn out to be minimally adaptive; some turn out to be adaptive, and some features of conditions represent attempts to act adaptively" (p. 149). The first half of the book explores these concepts in general, while the second half explores individual conditions such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, dysthymia, etc.

For example, "behavioral states, traits, and events are that (1) others' behavior initiates infrastructural activities that have physiological, psychological, and behavioral consequences; (2) interaction sequences can be viewed as functional units; (3) typical interaction sequences are often consequences of compromised infrastructures; and (4) inferences about infrastructure functionality can be made through the observation of behavior and its function" (p. 98). It's Number 3 that distinguishes this text from others in psychiatry. When the authors discuss moods, for example, they understand them as the failure to accurately process emotion-terminating feedback information optimally or functionally. The (in)ability of the species to adapt to its environment is key to understanding its (dys)function.

Two caveats. (1) This book must be read in sequential chapters, as each chapter builds upon the former. Moreover, the technique the authors use is heuristic, which builds their theory from the ground up. The authors find the methodology in DSM-IV unsuited for their purposes, and so begin with different first principles. Thus, in order to understand mood disorders, depression, and anxiety, one must first understand the Darwinian concepts of kin selection, reciprocity, survival, and reproduction presented under Theory of Personality. So, don't expect to go to the chapter on Depression and understand it solo.

Second, (2) while this book is written for and by professionals in the psychiatric field, its benefits and accessibility apply to all in the mental health professions. I have neither a degree in the field nor am I acquainted with some of the theories, disorders, and treatments discussed, but I found the authors' arguments and case histories easy to follow. Indeed, their lucid clarity, heuristic approach, and polished style make their theories stand out vibrantly. I also appreciated its concision. And, unlike so many other works under the appellation of evolutionary psychology, this text actually uses mental conditions to explicate its Darwinian precepts. I have a much clearer idea of what depression is and what kinds of intervention are best suited to treat it from an evolutionary perspective. Highly recommended.

Exceptional Scholarly Work.......2002-01-01

It is an exceptional, and very rare scholarly work of incredible science that tries to avoid human biases that can easily creep into
the evaluation of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and other therapies. As other good reviewers have said this book is very
comprehensive and written for the advanced reader but it is a MUST for ALL and should be mandatory reading for any
progressive school or person. The book discusses several human brain conditions from anxiety all to way to schizophrenia, and
discusses their definition, diagnosis, origins, prevalence, reasons for existing, etc.... What I specifically noted about this book,
apart from all the good that has been written, is its attempt to remove, as much as possible, human biases in the science of
psychology, and psychiatry and to just state "Just the facts mam". They even admit to the pitfalls of the traditional fields of
psychology, and psychiatry (e.g. psychoanalysis). A MUST for those wanting to move on beyond the traditional psychobable
and self-help; towards real science.

An extremely interesting book detailing evolutionary human behavior. Covers a very wide range from the history of evolutionary
thinking to the latest views. Includes: kin selection, friendship, family, group, and tribal behavioral dynamics as viewed from an
evolutionary point of view.

For further reading:
The Moral Animal : The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology by Robert Wright
Charles Darwin by John Bowlby
Evolutionary Psychiatry : A New Beginning by Anthony Stevens, John Price
Darwinian Psychiatry by Michael T. McGuire, Alfonso Troisi

A state-of-the art review of the biology/psychiatry link.......1999-07-20

The authors are accomplished psychiatrists who here bring together the wealth of information from contemporary biology, studies of animal behavior, and evolutionary theory, to consider their impact on the practice of psychiatry. Darwinian Psychiatry is an amazing book for its scholarship, erudition, and comprehensiveness. It shows decisively how the mind/body and nature/culture dichotomies are not only pointlessly wrong but scientifically and medically dangerous. It is by no means a simple book to read because of the density of technical information. But it is relatively jargon-free and designed to be helpful to medics interested in treating sick people as well as scientists pursuing fundamental studies. It is a work of quite bewilderingly impressive skill.

Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity

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Excellent
Darwin in the mind
Great, but ponderous, exposition on Genius and Creativity
Repetitive and boring
perhaps the best book ever written on this subject

Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity
Dean Keith Simonton
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195128796

Amazon.com

What makes an Einstein happen? How is it that some kids grow up to be Nobel laureates while others, seemingly their equals, go on to undistinguished careers? Dean Simonton, professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis, has striven to understand this phenomenon for years and has compiled his insights and research in Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity. His evolutionary perspective sheds new light on an old topic, suggesting that the genius is able to generate a diverse range of ideas, recombine them, and choose the "fittest" with which to proceed. These faculties might have a wide range of origins, including both genetic and environmental, and Simonton tries to pinpoint them and their similarities with the etiology of mental illness. His writing style is humble and personable, yet as penetrating when discussing experimental results as it is humane when presenting examples of genius and madness at work. While defining such terms as intelligence and creativity are (and should be) daunting even to a thoughtful psychologist like Simonton, his use of the terms is precise enough to avoid mushy thinking yet wiggly enough to satisfy most critics. His deeply engaging writing coupled with the undeniable, almost urgent fascination that his subject holds makes Origins of Genius a rousing success by any standard. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

How can we account for the sudden appearance of such dazzling artists and scientists as Mozart, Shakespeare, Darwin, or Einstein? How can we define such genius? What conditions or personality traits seem to produce exceptionally creative people? Is the association between genius and madness really just a myth? These and many other questions are brilliantly illuminated in The Origins of Genius. Dean Simonton convincingly argues that creativity can best be understood as a Darwinian process of variation and selection. The artist or scientist generates a wealth of ideas, and then subjects these ideas to aesthetic or scientific judgment, selecting only those that have the best chance to survive and reproduce. Indeed, the true test of genius is the ability to bequeath an impressive and influential body of work to future generations. Simonton draws on the latest research into creativity and explores such topics as the personality type of the genius, whether genius is genetic or produced by environment and education, the links between genius and mental illness (Darwin himself was emotionally and mentally unwell), the high incidence of childhood trauma, especially loss of a parent, amongst Nobel Prize winners, the importance of unconscious incubation in creative problem-solving, and much more. Simonton substantiates his theory by examining and quoting from the work of such eminent figures as Henri Poincare, W. H. Auden, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Niels Bohr, and many others. For anyone intrigued by the spectacular feats of the human mind, The Origins of Genius offers a revolutionary new way of understanding the very nature of creativity.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2006-07-12

One of the best books I've read in years.

Simonton does a great job of linking old and new ideas into something meaningful. He references many known and reliable studies to prove out his points. He also assumes that the reader has a good background knowledge on related issues, so he doesn't belabor things that we already know.

Due to the complexity of the topic, it is very detailed. I wouldn't really describe it as a recreational read, but it is well work the effort. You'll be surprised and challenged by the things you'll learn.

Darwin in the mind.......2003-09-18

Studies abound on the causes of outstanding human accomplishment. A glance at Simonton's bibliography will confirm that observation. His own efforts to define the roots of creativity are of long standing. This work artfully assembles this wealth of information, placing it squarely within a "Darwinian perspective". With a modest disclaimer, Simonton sees this book as "one long argument", the phrase Darwin applied to Origin. He's correct to do so. This book exemplifies how far Darwin's ingenious idea of natural selection can reach. Simonton's well organised and clearly presented survey of the roots of creativity is an noteworthy effort.

Darwin himself provides the pivotal focus in Simonton's study. He explains how Darwin's work is symbolised by a combination of genius, creativity and the capacity for hard work to bring ideas to fruition. He postulates two forms of "Darwinism" - primary, the purely biological and the secondary which he describes as "adaptive with environmental interaction". He strives to relate how primary Darwinism underlies the secondary form where genius can emerge. It's clear from his analysis that genius doesn't "just happen". Many elements are involved, and most or all must be brought into play to express creativity and have ideas disseminated to the wider world.

Simonton places heavy reliance on the model proposed by Donald Campbell. Campbell proposed an "ideational" concept with the creative mind coping with rich variations of concepts and ways of expressing them. From this foundation Simonton goes on to discuss individual differences and how these fit within a Darwinian framework. From the individual, he analyses the "product" of the creative mind. In what is certain to arouse protest, he shows how the creative process is as "blind" in "seeking results" as is biological selection itself. The "product" is neither predictable nor easily fit into simple causation.

Simonton's ideas have been thoroughly researched with the limits of available data. He has proposed a novel thesis in a fresh and readable manner. As a lighter touch, he offers a survey of the research linking genius with madness. While there will be much dissent, perhaps even acrimony in response to his ideas, it's certain much more research will result from his suggestions. If nothing else, that will keep this book as a point of focus for some time. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Great, but ponderous, exposition on Genius and Creativity.......2002-08-24

I don't know how the author did it, but he produced a great book that was both ponderous and a real page-turner.

I found this book to be extremely interesting and well-written in detail. But the author could be ponderous in repeating some sub-themes and points.

You will learn a lot about the causes of genius and creativity but you won't walk away with a quick set of techniques to help you on your immediate problem. You will learn an overall approach of what has worked in the past.

His references and analogies to Darwin make the book even better. His references of other readings are also excellent and very detailed.

I really liked his comparison of artistic vs. scientific creativity or genius. One selection from the book that I found very interesting was this one on what makes for greatness in a genius:

"... individual differences in total lifetime output are indeed associated with the degree of eminence achieved. In fact, research has consistently shown that the most powerful single predictor of reputation among both contemporaries and future generations is the person's sum total of contributions. Furthermore, almost all other variables that may correlate with the differnce in fame between individuals do so only because they affect the output of creative products."

The point made in this sub-theme by Simonton was that it was the QUANTITY rather than the just the QUALITY that often was the leading indicator of peer acceptance of genius. If the genius is not stepping up to the plate and taking a lot of swings, he won't go down as a "Babe Ruth." Most of the geniuses studied were single home-runners.

Another thing I liked about the author was an often used approach of revealing a concept, proving it with lots of historical details and studies, then when you were really convinced, he showed you why other studies show why that logic might be flawed. He did this several times in the book, and it was quite stimulating to see the flaws in many people's logic... after you had made the same fatal assumption or mistake.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in the background and causes of genius and creativity. My copy of this book is heavily underlined.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

Repetitive and boring.......2002-07-07

The subject matter is quite interesting, but no tangible Darwinian perspective of creativity emerges from this book. Apart from that, this stuff is so interesting that one could make the book a real page-turner (think Dawkins or Simon Singh). While this work is slow, repetitive and ultimately dissatisfying. And inconclusive, too: all these lists of geniuses do not supply any real, verifyable statistic data.

Worth to leaf through, but not much more.

perhaps the best book ever written on this subject.......2001-11-19

This book presents one theory on creativity, but that misleads. It covers another 30 theories along the way, using its one favored theory to knit and mesh, distinguish and fit all the others. Each page contains the same contents as entire other books on the subject (fortunately for this book; unfortunately for the others). I try my best to find faults with the books that I buy but I would be hard pressed to find a single fault with this book. You will learn more about creativity from this book, even if the theory it presents turns out to be wrong, than you will from any other book, I believe, though Sternberg, Amabile, Runco, Martindale, Gruber and a few few others have near competitors so excellent that you would be foolish not to buy their books as well. This book teaches you 30 theories of creativity while presenting its favored one. It is wonderful. Finite limited human beings can do no better.

Some readers might think that this book is too researchy, especially readers looking for how to books on quick and easy creativity methods. Strangely, this book while maintaining all the professional balance and careful definition of any academic work, makes it much clearer what you have to do to become creative than the top 50 how to books combined. I counted an amazing 1100 particular suggestions in this book for how to make someone more creative--that is about 1000 more than any other published how to book and this book avoids the exaggerations, the sales language, and the imbalanced treatment of pros and cons of such lesser books.

Love Of Shopping Is Not A Gene: Problems With Darwinian Psychology
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Love Of Shopping Is Not A Gene: Problems With Darwinian Psychology
Anne Innis Dagg
Manufacturer: Black Rose Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1551642565

Book Description

At the beginning of the 21st century, genes are used to explain almost every aspect of human life, from social inequalities to health, sexuality and criminality. Although few people have studied genetics, our culture is full of casual references to them. The Darwinian, if asked to comment on our evident â€~love of shopping,' would declare it to be in our genes. As former hunters and gatherers, they would say, there is no qualitative difference between gathering fruits and shopping for food, clothes, housewares or knickknacks. One can read not only about the "shopping gene," but also about the "reading gene," the "humility gene" and the "coaching gene." Pop science, fostered by Darwinian psychology, run amok.

This book is a critique of Darwinian psychology-alias evolutionary psychology, alias sociobiology-the study of the social behavior of animals and people based on evolution. In this provocative work, Anne Innis Dagg, an eminent and outspoken critic of this ideology, first presents an overview of the theory and its popularity both among professionals and lay people, then she examines concepts of social behavior-based on "genes vs. culture"--including: aggression in the form of rape, infanticide, homicide, gang violence and war, and general criminality; homosexuality in both the human and the animal world; and race, IQ and environment.

Focusing on the problems present in much Darwinian psychological research-flawed data, faulty analysis, and political motives-this controversial book offers the first comprehensible critique of the most popular scientific theory of the late 20th century.

Anne Innis Dagg has an M.A. in Genetics and a Ph.D. in animal behavior. She is the author of numerous books, including The Camel: Its Ecology, Behavior and Relationship with Man, and The Feminine Gaze: A Compendium of Nonfiction Women Authors and Their Books. She is currently academic director of independent studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

Without Miracles: Universal Selection Theory and the Second Darwinian Revolution

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FULL? VERISON ONLINE
Deceptively simple process generates beauty!
A Must! But far from flawless...
A brilliant tour de force

Without Miracles: Universal Selection Theory and the Second Darwinian Revolution
Gary Cziko
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 026253147X

Book Description

"The fish's streamlined shape reveals functional knowledge of the physical properties of water.... The deadly effectiveness of the cobra's venom shows useful knowledge of the physiology of its prey.... Indeed, knowledge itself may be broadly conceived as the fit of some aspect of an organism to some aspect of its environment, whether it be the fit of the butterfly's long siphon of a mouth to the flowers from which it feeds or the fit of the astrophysicist's theories to the structure of the universe. ... But how did such remarkable instances of fit arise? How did the animate world obtain its impressive knowledge of its surroundings? And how do organisms continue to acquire knowledge and thereby increase their fit during their lifetimes?"

In this sweeping account of the emergence of fit, Gary Cziko integrates numerous scientific disciplines within the perspective of a universal selection theory that attempts to account for all cases of fit involving living organisms, including those that might appear miraculous. Cziko's bold assertion is that all novel forms of adapted complexity -- whether single-celled organisms or scientific theories -- emerge from an evolutionary process involving cumulative blind variation and selection.

Without Miracles describes many remarkable examples of the fit of various structures, behaviors, and products of living organisms to their environments in a broad synthesis of humankind's attempt to understand the emergence of complex, adapted entities. These explanations range from the providential accounts of the early philosophers and "natural theologians," through instructionist theories of the type proposed by Lamarck, to an ongoing "second Darwinian revolution" in which natural and artificial selection are being applied to many fields of science to both explain the emergence of naturally occurring adapted complexity and to facilitate the design of useful products ranging from microbes to computer programs.

The evolution of explanations of fit from providential through instructionist to selectionist theories, Cziko argues, has occurred repeatedly in many different fields of knowledge along with a growing realization that the Darwinian mechanism of cumulative blind variation and selection is the only tenable nonmiraculous explanation for the emergence of any kind of functional complexity.

Cziko applies this provocative selectionist thesis to a stunning range of domains including biology, immunology, neuroscience, ethology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, education, linguistics, and computer science. The result is an up-to-date, clearly summarized collection of selectionist arguments that shows how our knowledge of the emergence of fit has itself evolved and continues to do so. A Bradford Book

Customer Reviews:

FULL? VERISON ONLINE.......2004-05-28

This book can be found at http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/g-cziko/wm/

Deceptively simple process generates beauty!.......2002-01-24

That applies to this book, as well as the concepts described herein.

When a book can alter your perception and understanding of the world for the better you reread it. I'm currently on my third formal reading of this masterpiece. I go back to it often.

Cziko has brought to life the simple but powerful concept that Campbell called evolutionary epistemology: blind variation and selection. I use these concepts in everyday life (risk-taking, creativity, trade-off decision-making). Even if not useful, the concept would enegender admiration for its sheer beauty. The fact that it can be useful and fun is an added benefit.

A Must! But far from flawless..........2001-11-22

This book is surely a must for anyone interested in phylosophical discussions concerning "darwinian" (or better, neo-darwinian) evolution theory, and its potential to explain other fields where any kind of innovation is created. The author describes these innovations as "puzzles of fit" of an organism or of a system to another organism or system, and he brilliantly equals all these "fits" to "knowledge". Cziko reached a good level of quality in his transdisciplinary approach, putting together data from fields like evolutionary biology, immunology, neurobiology, animal and human learning, human thought and language, scientific knowledge growth, and cultural adaptation. For this, he no doubt deserves a four-star ranking. But then, there come the flaws...

The central issue in the book is that just any kind of innovation, puzzle of fit, knowledge growth, or whatever you call it, can only be achieved through a process very much like biological evolution as accepted by the neo-darwinian paradigm: cumulative blind variation followed by the survival of the fittest. Cziko also shows how explanations for these puzzles of fit have evolved in all fields from providential explanations (like in the book of Genesis, where things happened to achieve a pourpose previously devised), through instructionist ones (like Lamarck's "Use and Disuse" plus "Inheritance of Acquired Characters", where the environment would "force" the individual creatures to change just in the right, successful way, and then the creatures would pass these changes on to their offsprings), and finally to selectionist ones (Darwin's Selection Theory). He says that only selectionist explanations can give truly "scientific" and "naturalistic" accounts for these fits, without recoursing to miraculous schemes. In short: Cziko brings us the good news that not only are we merely machines (like we have feared ever since the mechanical physics of Newton), but we are blind ones too!

The starting point of his reasoning is evolutionary biology, and Cziko's understanding of it seems to me too narrow-minded, with a strong bias toward the old notions of New-Darwinism. Consequently, his report and deductions on it are misinformative. Evolution was (and, to a large extent, still is) thought to be based on "variation and survival of the fittest". But in the past the view of the causes of these variations were believed to be basically errors: DNA damage by the environment, and failure of the organism to correct damages or to make precise copies of the DNA. It's been a long time now that this view has changed dramatically, and organisms, even as simple as bacteria, are now known (from before 1990) to possess amazing control over the ways and the contexts in which these variations happen. They can trigger DNA mutation under appropriate conditions (stress, threats to survival), and even control which areas of the genome will be subject to change. This renders organisms much more "smartly" interactive with the environment as might be expected from reading Cziko.

So, what Cziko did not tell about the process of antibody creation by B-Lynphocytes is that when they undergo somatic hypermutation to fine tune their antibody production to the antigen, this hypermutation is, first, triggered by the interaction with the very antigen, and second, it is far from blind: the mutation happens only in a very restricted area of the chromosome, changing only the areas of the antibody molecule that interact with the antigen (and not even the whole molecule!). So this is a very "thematic" kind of mutation-variation; maybe "short-sighted", but surely not "blind"!

When he comments on the phenomenon of "directed mutation", the strange capability of many procarionts (like bacteria) to seemingly direct their mutation to the desired result, he takes a rather cynical and slightly arrogant stand, apparently rejecting the existance of the phenomenon itself, even saying "But let us continue to imagine for a moment that a bacterium was able to change just those genes regulating metabolism in just the right way to allow for the digestion of a foreign sugar". It seems that he read only two research articles on this, and not quite well, and draw much of his attitude towards the phenomenon from his academic-environment prejudiced and uninformed criticism. By the time he was writing his book , directed mutation had been fully demonstrated by many researchers, and not only by Cairns. Actually, even as early as 1984, four years before Cairns revolutionary and controversial paper on it, J.A. Shapiro had already shown the phenomenon fully (Observations on the Formation of Clones Containing araB-lacZ cistrons fusions. Molecular & General Genetics 1984;194(1-2):79-80), only in a much more discreet maner. By 1995, a wealth of information was already available, from researchers like Shapiro and B.G. Hall, among others, and now even eukariotes (yeast) are known to perform "directed mutation" (Hall BG. Adaptive Mutagenesis: a Process that Generates Almost Exclusively Beneficial Mutations. Genetica 1998;102(103):109-125.). Strikingly, this process shows some resemblance to human B-lynphocyte somatic hypermutation!

When Cziko moves on to the other areas, scientific knowledge growth, etc, the already "short-sighted" (and not blind) variation seems to have undergone a surgical operation on its eye and starts to see almost sharply. Also, the second step, that is, the survival of the fittest (in biology, through killing the non-fit) seems to change to a true "selection" process (choosing one among many, by identifying its desirable qualities, which is quite different from "survival of the fittest"). Even Campbell and Pinker, which he defines as fully (or almost) selectionists, seem to turn to rather providential viewpoints, like "innativism" and "constraints", for triggering and orienting the variation, and guiding the selection, not succeding in solving Meno's providential dilema: "...if you don't already possess the knowledge you are looking for, how will you know when you have found it?"

Cziko, like many, wrongly equals "scientific" and "naturalistic" explanations to "mechanical" ones, and since our mechanistic view of nature is basically deterministic, he only sees lamarckism as an instructionist process, not a "freely-willed" one, failing to address vital phenomena like human consciouness and apparent free-will.

A brilliant tour de force.......2001-07-13

We all know about the theory of evolution by natural selection, but what I didn't know was that this idea could be extended to any field in which something new is produced. Cziko brilliantly reviews the application of selection theory (blind variation followed by selection of best fits) to fields as different as neurology, immunology, linguistics, education, pharmacology and artificial intelligence, and presents a strong argument for the claim that innovation in any field can only arise through an application of selection theory. How does our immune system deal with a potentially infinite variety of antigens? Not directly through information contained in the genes, which are quite limited in number. Not through direct copying of the shapes of antigens, since no mechanism allows it to copy an infinite number of potential shapes. Rather, sequential generations of B lymphocytes produce antibodies that fit the antigen better and better, with continual selection of the B lymphocytes that produce the best-fitting antibodies. How do we acquire new knowledge? It is not innate, as Plato claimed. And we don't directly "learn" it from others, except in the sense that a parrot learns. Rather, we are constantly trying to make better and better sense of our perceptions, by building better and better explanations in our minds and rejecting inadequate explanations. Information and instruction received from others are only perceptions to us until we have incorporated them into our own explanatory schemes. So "learning" is actually an active process of explanation-building through trial and error, in other words, a form of blind variation of explanatory schemes and selection of the best ones.

This book is well-written, clear, and immensely "instructive", causing me to modify a number of explanatory schemes in my own mind. I put it alongside the best of Dawkins, Dennett and Wilson. It should have a much wider readership than it apparently has.

Darwinian Psychiatry
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Darwinian Psychiatry
Michael T. McGuire
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKBIEI

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