University Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, LaPSCo, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
University Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, LMGE, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Naturwissenschaften. 2022 Aug 12;109(5):42. doi: 10.1007/s00114-022-01814-9.
Since Darwin's theory of evolution, adaptationism is frequently invoked to explain cognition and cultural processes. Adaptationism can be described as a prescriptive view, as phenotypes that do not optimize fitness should not be selected by natural selection. From an epistemological perspective, the principle of a prescriptive definition of adaptation seems incompatible with recent advances in epigenetics, evolutionary developmental biology, ethology, and genomics. From these challenges, a proscriptive view of adaptation has emerged, postulating that phenotypes that are not deleterious will be evolutionary maintained. In this epistemological investigation, we examine how the shift from adaptationism to a proscriptive view changes our view of cognition and culture. We argue that, while adaptationism leads to cognitivism and a view of culture as strategies to optimize overall fitness, the proscriptive definition favors embodied theories of cognition and a view of culture as the cumulative diffusion of behaviors allowed by the constraints of reproduction.
自从达尔文的进化论以来，适应主义经常被用来解释认知和文化过程。适应主义可以被描述为一种规定性的观点，因为不能使适应性达到最优的表型不应该被自然选择所选择。从认识论的角度来看，适应的规定性定义原则似乎与最近在表观遗传学、进化发育生物学、行为学和基因组学方面的进展不兼容。从这些挑战中，出现了一种禁止性的适应观，假设那些没有危害的表型将在进化上得到维持。在这个认识论的研究中，我们探讨了从适应主义到禁止性观点的转变如何改变我们对认知和文化的看法。我们认为，虽然适应主义导致了认知主义和将文化视为优化整体适应性的策略的观点，但禁止性的定义则有利于认知的体现论和文化作为由生殖限制允许的行为的累积扩散的观点。
