Rebecca Watson's Evo Psych Talk

[Dave2]

I noticed a number of issues with Rebecca Watson's talk on evolutionary psychology and have produced a blog that will list them.

http://psych0drama.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... ously.html

As some of the mistakes she makes are funny and/or serious I thought this blog would be the best place to begin to seek feedback and attention. I wasn't particularly critical of Watson before I saw the talk, but the fact that it is so sloppy and is yet held as valid by the likes of PZ Myers and Stephanie Zvan has provoked me to try and point out in more detail just why it is so awful.

[Gumby]

A good start to a thorough takedown of a thoroughly sloppy presentation by Watson. You should advertise this on the Periodic Table of Swearing thread, as it is the main discussion area and a lot of people rarely venture outside it.

Oh, and welcome!

[TheMan]

a great read thank you. I'm looking forward to more.

[Ms. Ogynist]

I enjoyed the article.

My eyes didn't.

White text on a black page is painful.

[windy]

Nice post Dave, would be interesting to read more.

Has anyone been following the Pharyngula "takedown" of evolutionary psychology? It's a very strange approach, for example, the fundamental failure of evolutionary psychology is apparently that it's built on adaptationism. Now, it's very possible that they're mistaken about the extent to which psychological traits (or any traits) are adaptations, but can it be called a fundamentally flawed premise?

That could depend on how he defines 'adaptationism' but then there's this:

Because selection is blind to small differences. Chance dominates, unless the selection coefficient is relatively large.

:shock:

[Dave2]

I posted a second section:

http://psych0drama.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... ly_30.html

Which takes it up to 13 minutes. A lot of the stuff here has been covered by Ed Clint, so sorry if it comes across as second hand.