Programme

The course is organised in two parts. The first part examines the characteristics of evolutionary explanations, with particular attention to the models proposed by ethology, sociobiology, and evolutionary psychology. It introduces the problem of human nature as these approaches frame it, seeking to answer the question of whether the fact that a trait is biological means that it is an adaptation, and analysing the risks of the unfalsifiable adaptive story. These themes are then considered in relation to specific theories concerning parental and romantic relationships — for example, parental investment theory as the engine of sex differences: short-term and long-term mate preferences, jealousy, and sexual conflict.

The second part of the course is devoted to so-called extended evolutionary explanations. It examines the shift in the level of analysis from the gene to the organism-in-context: the social landscape as a network of interacting developmental systems, with bidirectional causation between organism and environment; niche construction, whereby the modified environment itself becomes a channel of inheritance; the cognitive niche and child development, and the reasons why inheritance becomes in part non-genetic. It then moves to variation, transmission, and selection applied to cultural traits, with the analogies and limits of the conceptual borrowing from biology, and to cumulative cultural evolution, social learning, prestige bias, and conformity. The course closes with a broader analysis of the evolutionary implications of theories of the evolution of parental and romantic relationships that remain valid, reread in the light of the extended framework.

Core Documentation

The following academic articles will be read and critically discussed in the class.

1. Dupré, John. Introduction and chapter 2 (How much must evolution explain?) Eds. (2001) Human Nature and the Limits of Science. Oxford University Press.
1, 2, 3

2. Griffiths, Paul E. "Ethology, Sociobiology, and Evolutionary Psychology." A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology (2007): 393-414.
6, 7, 8, 9

3. Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (2017). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. In Interpersonal development (pp. 297-325). Routledge.

4. Jablonka, E. (2023). Interacting networks in social landscapes: A devo-evo approach to socialcultural dynamics. Human Development, 67(5-6), 288-304.

5. Stotz, Karola. "Human nature and cognitive–developmental niche construction." Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9 (2010): 483
10

6. Mesoudi, Alex. "Cultural evolution: Integrating psychology, evolution and culture." Current Opinion in Psychology 7 (2016): 17-22.
11, 12

7. Chapter 9 from Henrich, J. (2015). The secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter. In The secret of our success. princeton University press.

Attendance

Active participation in class is strongly encouraged. The exam may be taken by both enrolled and non-enrolled students. Students who intend to take the exam as non-enrolled students are asked to contact the instructor in advance.

Type of evaluation

Assessment will consist of an oral examination conducted in English, aimed at evaluating the student’s critical understanding of the course topics and thorough knowledge of the assigned readings. Students who, for any reason, wish to take the exam in Italian are kindly asked to contact the instructor and motivate their request.