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Cited by 3,627Academic and Historical Perspectives in PsychologyLanguage and cultural evolutionPhilosophy and Historical Thought

The Psychological Foundations of Culture

Tooby, John, Cosmides, Leda·1992·The Adapted Mind
DOI 10.1093/oso/9780195060232.003.0002
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Abstract

Disciplines such as astronomy, chemistry, physics, geology, and biology have developed a robust combination of logical coherence, causal description, explanatory power, and testability, and have become examples of how reliable and deeply satisfying human knowledge can become. Their extraordinary florescence throughout this century has resulted in far more than just individual progress within each field. These disciplines are becoming integrated into an increasingly seamless system of interconnected knowledge and remain nominally separated more out of educational convenience and institutional inertia than because of any genuine ruptures in the underlying unity of the achieved knowledge. In fact, this development is only an acceleration of the process of conceptual unification that has been building in science since the Renaissance. For example, Galileo and Newton broke down the then rigid (and now forgotten) division between the celestial and the terrestrial-two domains that formerly had been considered metaphysically separate-showing that the same processes and principles applied to both. Lyell broke down the distinction between the static present and the formative past, between the creative processes operating in the present and the geological processes that had operated across deep time to sculpt the earth. Maxwell uncovered the elegant principles that unified the many disparate electrical and magnetic phenomena into a single system.

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  • Tooby and Cosmides set their version of evolutionary psychology apart from the standard social science model that included Skinnerian behaviorism.

    “It is therefore ironic that when Tooby and Cosmides (1992) formulated their version of EP, they set it apart from the SSSM that included the Skinnerian tradition (see also Pinker 1997; 2002).”

    From Evolving the future: Toward a science of intentional change (2014) · cites this paper as Tooby & Cosmides 1992

  • The polarized distinction between evolutionary psychology and the standard social science model was a wrong turn that must be corrected.

    “In particular, the polarized distinction between evolutionary psychology and the standard social science model (Pinker 1997; 2002; Tooby & Cosmides 1992) was a wrong turn we must correct.”

    From Evolving the future: Toward a science of intentional change (2014) · cites this paper as Tooby & Cosmides 1992

  • Insofar as we have inherited the anatomical, biological, and psychological architecture of our forebears, we have a hard-wired desire for a limited form of primary partner commitment as well as a powerful, sex-lopsided urge for extra-pair copulation over the life course.

    “Insofar as we have inherited the anatomical, biological, and psychological architecture of our forebears, we have a hard-wired desire for a (limited) form of primary partner commitment as well as a powerful, sex-lopsided urge for extra-pair copulation over the life course12 (see Symons 1987, 1992; Tooby and Cosmides 1992; Buss 1994; Barash and Lipton 1997).”

    From Natural Selection, Childrearing, and the Ethics of Marriage (and Divorce): Building a Case for the Neuroenhancement of Human Relationships (2012) · cites this paper as Tooby and Cosmides 1992

  • Having tight constraints on languages ought to make them easier and quicker to learn both for children and for people wanting to be able to speak multiple languages.

    “Following the arguments for the efficiency of having innate, information-rich cognitive modules (Tooby & Cosmides 1992), having tight constraints on languages ought to make them easier and quicker to learn both for children and for people wanting to be able to speak multiple languages.”

    From Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: a sketch of the evidence. (2016) · cites this paper as Tooby & Cosmides 1992

  • Evoked culture hypotheses propose facultative cognitive mechanisms that modulate behavior based on available information.

    “Evoked culture hypotheses propose facultative cognitive mechanisms that modulate behavior based on available information (Tooby & Cosmides 1992).”

    From Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: a sketch of the evidence. (2016) · cites this paper as Tooby & Cosmides 1992

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Authors
Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L.
Affiliations
University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
ORCID
Venue
The Adapted Mind
Publisher
Oxford University PressNew York, NY
Published
1992-08-06
Pages
19-136
DOI
10.1093/oso/9780195060232.003.0002
OpenAlex
W2903040413
Cited by
3,627
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 50 · 2025: 96 · 2024: 153 · 2023: 75 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 146 · 2020: 205 · 2019: 161 · 2018: 106 · 2017: 87 · 2016: 117 · 2015: 125 · 2014: 156 · 2013: 160 · 2012: 144
FWCI
48.18
Type
book chapter
Language
en
Open access
closed
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › General Psychology › Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophy and Historical Thought
Keywords
culture, cultural psychology, conceptual unification, integration of scientific disciplines, unity of knowledge, history of science, deep time

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