Forum:The Ethics of Evolutionary Psychology

Introduction
More than perhaps any other branch of the Social Sciences, and certainly more than any other approach to psychology, evolutionary psychology (lower caps) and even more so Evolutionary Psychology (upper caps) is frequently attacked on moral grounds. Charges range from such things as encouraging immoral behaviour, to justifying racism, or even just for "looking at the world in an ugly way". Why should evolutionary psychology in particular, ellicit such empassioned responses from it's critics? What is the root of these kind of criticisms, are they at all reasonable? Should we be concerned that a certain way of stating what is (i.e. from an evolutionary perspective) may lead some to draw undesirable conclusions about what ought to be? Or are these just symptoms of arrogant anthropocentrism and confusion about the nature of science and the is/ought distinction? Orgone 23:02, 3 January 2007 (UTC)