caa a22 4500 46580294X CHVBK 20180323112057.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170327e19900101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF02423832 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF02423832 Wilson David Dept. of Biological Sciences, State University of New York Binghamton, 13901, New York, U.S.A. aut Species of thought: A comment on evolutionary epistemology [Elektronische Daten] [David Wilson] The primary outcome of natural selection is adaptation to an environment. The primary concern of epistemology is the acquistion of knowledge. Evolutionary epistemology must therefore draw a fundamental connection between adaptation and knowledge. Existing frameworks in evolutionary epistemology do this in two ways; (a) by treating adaptation as a form of knowledge, and (b) by treating the ability to acquire knowledge as a biologically evolved adaptation. I criticize both frameworks for failing to appreciate that mental representations can motivate behaviors that are adaptive in the real world without themselves directly corresponding to the real world. I suggest a third framework in which mental representations are to reality as species are to ecosystems. This is a many-to-one relationship that predicts a diversity of adaptive representations in the minds of interacting people. As "species of thought”, mental representations share a number of properties with biological species, including isolating mechanisms that prevent them from blending with other representations. Species of thought also are amenable to the empirical methods that evolutionists use to study adaptation in biological species. Empirical studies of mental representations in everyday life might even be necessary for science to succeed as a normative "truth-seeking” discipline. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990 Evolutionary epistemology nationallicence mental representations nationallicence adaptation nationallicence Biology and Philosophy Kluwer Academic Publishers 5/1(1990-01-01), 37-62 0169-3867 5:1<37 1990 5 10539 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02423832 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02423832 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Wilson David Dept. of Biological Sciences, State University of New York Binghamton, 13901, New York, U.S.A aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Biology and Philosophy Kluwer Academic Publishers 5/1(1990-01-01), 37-62 0169-3867 5:1<37 1990 5 10539 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer