Evolutionary psychology is one of many biologically informed approaches to the study of human behavior. Along with cognitive psychologists, evolutionary psychologists propose that much, if not all, of our behavior can be explained by appeal to internal psychological mechanisms. What distinguishes evolutionary psychologists from many cognitive psychologists is the proposal that the relevant internal mechanisms are adaptations—products of natural selection—that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive and reproduce. To understand the central claims of evolutionary psychology we require an understanding of some key concepts in evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, philosophy of science and philosophy of mind. Philosophers are interested in evolutionary psychology for a number of reasons. For philosophers of science —mostly philosophers of biology—evolutionary psychology provides a critical target. There is a broad consensus among philosophers of science that evolutionary psychology is a deeply flawed enterprise. For philosophers of mind and cognitive science evolutionary psychology has been a source of empirical hypotheses about cognitive architecture and specific components of that architecture. Philosophers of mind are also critical of evolutionary psychology but their criticisms are not as all-encompassing as those presented by philosophers of biology. Evolutionary psychology is also invoked by philosophers interested in moral psychology both as a source of empirical hypotheses and as a critical target.

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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Cet article cherche a determiner a quels types d'evenements historiques s'applique l'analyse de path dependence. Selon l'A., il s'agit de sequences historiques au sein desquelles des evenements contingents mettent en mouvement des modeles institutionnels ou des chaines d'evenements ayant des proprietes deterministes. L'identification de la path dependence implique a la fois de relier un resultat a une serie d'evenements et de montrer en quoi ces evenements sont eux-memes des occurences contingentes ne pouvant etre expliquees par des conditions historiques prealables. Ces sequences historiques sont generalement de deux types : les sequences a auto-renforcement et les sequences reactives

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3108585.pdf

Path dependence in historical sociology

An analysis of theory and research in social psychology reveals that while methods of research are scientific in character, theories of social behavior are primarily reflections of contemporary history. The dissemination of psychological knowledge modifies the patterns of behavior upon which the knowledge is based. It does so because of the prescriptive bias of psychological theorizing, the liberating effects of knowledge, and the resistance based on common values of freedom and individuality. In addition, theoretical premises are based primarily on acquired dispositions. As the culture changes, such dispositions are altered, and the premises are often invalidated. Several modifications in the scope and methods of social psychology are derived from this analysis.

/pdf/social-psychology-as-history-2bg66fj0iw.pdf

Social Psychology as History

History teachers are frequently urged to use primary sources in their classrooms. Yet little research exists to guide them, for history has been virtually ignored by researchers interested in cognition and instruction. The present study explored how people evaluate primary and secondary sources when considering questions of historical evidence. A group of working historians and high school seniors "thought aloud" as they reviewed a series of written and pictorial documents about the Battle of Lexington. Differences were found in how each group reasoned about historical evidence. It is suggested that these differences are due in part to beliefs that frame the act of historical inquiry. Over 70 years ago J. Carleton Bell asked in the pages of this journal: "What is the historic sense? How can it be developed? These are questions in which the educational psychologist is interested and which it is incumbent upon him to answer" (1917, p. 317). In the years since Bell asked these questions, we have witnessed an explosion of research on school learning. This explosion, part of the "cognitive revolution" in psychology (Gardner, 1985), has shed light on students' thinking in such areas as arithmetic (Nesher & Katriel, 1977; Resnick, 1982), algebra (Sleeman, 1984), geometry (Greeno, Magone, & Chaiklin, 1979), biology (Carey, 1985), physics (diSessa, 1985; McCloskey, 1983), and computer science (Sleeman, Putnam, Baxter, & Kuspa, 1986). These citations represent a tiny sample of an expansive literature on the cognitive psychology of school subjects. But amid this efflorescence of research, the subject matter of history has been ignored. The situation is not much better in the cognitive literature on expertise. Although there are detailed descriptions of the problem solving of mathematicians (Schoenfeld, 1985), radiologists (Lesgold, Feltovich, Glaser, & Wang, 1981), physicists (Chi, Feltovich, & Glaser, 1981), physicians (Kuipers, Mos

Historical Problem Solving: A Study of the Cognitive Processes Used in the Evaluation of Documentary and Pictorial Evidence

List of illustrations Preface 1. The relevance of archaeological history 2. Classical archaeology and antiquarianism 3. The beginnings of scientific archaeology 4. The imperial synthesis 5. Culture-historical archaeology 6. Soviet archaeology 7. Functionalism in Western archaeology 8. Neo-evolutionism and the New Archaeology 9. The explanation of diversity 10. Archaeology and its social context Bibliographical essay References Index.

A History of Archaeological Thought

Introduction to the 40th Anniversary Edition R.J.Evans Introductory Note Preface to Second Edition The Historian and His Facts Society and the Individual History, Science and Morality Causation in History History as Progress The Widening Horizon From E.H.Carr's Files: Notes Towards a Second Edition of What is History? by R.W.Davies Index

Seymour Itzkoff

Papers

What Is History