There's a new essay in the journal Theory and Society and it's concerned for the state of, and future of, the social sciences.
It's got "evolutionary lens" in the title and it's by Gad Saad (about whom I learned a lot from Jill Lepore in this excellent series on Elon Musk), so I had to take a look.
This is what I saw...
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| Portlandia's "Put a Bird On It!" |
Are people doubting that evolutionary psychology is scientifically possible,* as in, are they saying that the ideas don't seem verifiable or falsifiable? Put a Darwin on their critiques!
That, then, transforms their ideas into "ideological brain parasites" which are clearly controlling them via contagious "idea pathogens". And that explains why they're so stupid, but they can be cured if only they ... put a Darwin on it!
Are people having other ideas that are not shared by us and other like-minded evolutionary psychologists? Put a Darwin on those too!
Beyond skepticism that evolutionary psychology is a scientific enterprise, other "parasitic ideas" include "postmodernism, cultural relativism, social constructivism, biophobia, transgender activism, radical feminism, a rejection of meritocracy via the promulgation of the diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) [sic] cult, and identity politics along with its ethos of eternal victimhood." With a Darwin on those ideas, then it's obvious how "human minds could be zombified by ideological capture".
See? When we put a Darwin on those ideas, they become selfish, viral memes.** And, then, we can speculate about their ancestry: "These ghastly ideas originate from social scientists housed in universities hellbent on creating a utopian world rooted in their progressive idealism."
And now that we know the source of the outbreak, well, we know what to do to stop it, don't we? Put a Darwin on it!
What will that do? Only save the social sciences from progressive idealism, and from the suicidal DIE (sic) cult, by converting all social scientists and related scholars to evolutionary psychology!
In the process of this transformation of the social sciences, here are some strategies.
Are social scientists and other scholars doubting that evolutionary psychology is scientific or possible? Call them postmodernists! Call them moral relativists! Call them science and biology deniers! Call them blank slatists and reality deniers! Call them feminists! Call them cognitive creationists! Call them zombies!
Understanding their stupidity so lucidly, and explaining their condition to them with such scientific rigor, will surely convince them to put a Darwin on their scholarly approach to humanity and to see the world exactly as you do!
Oh and don't forget to call upon other great men in history, like Dostoevsky. We can't leave out the humanities. Put a Darwin on them too!
That way, when people read Notes from Underground, they won't even see the critique of humanity's grasp of the "laws of nature" or there being some "organizing meta-theory" (yearned for and offered up in this essay) like evolutionary psychology to explain and predict the past, present, and future of human nature. Instead they, like you, will paint Dostoevsky with the very brush he was complaining about. How ironic. But it's okay because with a Darwin on the humanities, no one knows what irony is! Put a Darwin on Dostoevsky!
While there are so many harmful viral memes, like the parasitic ideas already mentioned, evolutionary psychology—with bearded silhouette of Charles Darwin as its proud sigil—is a positive meme we should, obviously, intentionally spread.
But it will be such a challenge because parasitic ideas, like those already mentioned, "possess a fatally negative valence, namely they destroy the capacity of the infected host to apply the epistemology of truth in navigating reality." And parasitic ideas have taken over the social sciences.
These examples of increasing intensity of stupidity (from misinformation, to false idea, to parasitic idea) outline how seemingly everyone, if not protected with psychological immunity under Darwin, is vulnerable to the cult of DIE (sic):
"Being told that the COVID vaccine protects you from being infected might constitute memetic misinformation. Believing that operant conditioning (behaviorism) explains all human behavior might be a non-parasitic false idea. Believing that men can bear children is a parasitic idea pathogen in that it destroys the fabric of reality and hijacks human reason. Parasitic idea pathogens have zombified the social sciences, which eventually led to the proliferation of wokeism across countless business, political, cultural, and academic institutions."
What's happening is, without having a Darwin on it, the social sciences are just too caring and empathetic because the cognitive and emotional systems of social scientists have been highjacked by idea pathogens.
"All these parasitic ideas start off with the hope of achieving a noble objective rooted in social justice. If along the way truth must be sacrificed, activist social scientists construe this as a small incidental price to pay. The epistemology of truth (the scientific method) takes a backseat to the epistemology of care and empathy...[some extreme examples of quotes by social scientists and some unfair or misunderstood depictions of resistance to evolutionary psychological claims/approaches] ...The social sciences cannot exist when governed by such an ethos of care and empathy."
It's not that social scientists shouldn't care! It's that they should care, above all, for Darwin! And they should only empathize with others who do!
And when they FINALLY do, then all critiques of the scientific legitimacy of evolutionary psychology and all complaints about the obsession with, and fanaticism for, Darwinism will FINALLY be seen by EVERYONE as mere "canards".
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