• taiyang@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    There’s the pseudoscience, then there’s the useful stuff. Natural selection is a good rational for human cooperation, for instance, and can be a way to explain why we have a conscience and feel guilt, etc… You know, apes together strong.

    Of course, it’s also still hypothetical, but it’s at least better than the philosophical/metaphysical way we explain why we behave ourselves. Just wish the good stuff wasn’t drown out by people with dumb takes.

    • RustyEarthfire@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      The problem is there isn’t anything “useful” for understanding humans [in evolutionary psychology]. Yes we can come up with plausible evolutionary justifications for behavior like cooperation, but they are basically untestable and useless for predictions.

      Edited to clarify I mean specifically evolutionary psychology.

    • yesman@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 months ago

      If I want to aggravate someone who’s into Jung, I ask them about the “accusations”. When they question “what accusations”, I say “the accusations that he plagiarized much of his work from the ghosts in the many, many seances he attended”.