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Identifying adaptation by dysfunction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2003

Donald F. Klein
Donald F. Klein
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032 [email protected]
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Abstract

Specifying exact selection pressures for identifying adaptations is unnecessary. Novel behaviors are not spandrels since they can only develop because of prior functions. An adaptationist approach has a high prior probability, whereas spandrel hypotheses attempt to prove a negative. The concept of maladaptive spandrel is criticized. The utility of dysfunctional states for identification of adaptations gone wrong is emphasized.

Type
Brief Report
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , August 2002 , pp. 521 - 522
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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