Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id VAA14376 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 10 Aug 2001 21:37:56 +0100 Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20010810144529.03491d30@mail.winstarmail.com> X-Sender: aaron@mcs.net@mail.winstarmail.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 15:21:19 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net> Subject: The Evolution of Intelligence (new book) In-Reply-To: <001701c121bf$ec9a7460$da86b2d1@teddace> References: <002501c120e6$765da4e0$b706bed4@default> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="=====================_709877503==_.ALT" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
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The book The Evolution of Intelligence, edited by Robert J. Sternberg and
James C. Kaufman has finally been published. The book has 20 authors in
all, and is 390 pages long. It is available for $79.95 from the publisher
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
(http://www.erlbaum.com/Books/searchintro/BookDetailscvr.cfm?ISBN=0-8058-3267-X)
or from bookstores.
Contents:
Preface.
1. R.J. Sternberg, The Search for Criteria: Why Study the Evolution of
Intelligence?
2. J.B. Grossman, J.C. Kaufman, Evolutionary Psychology: Promise and Perils.
3. D.F. Bjorklund, K. Kipp, Social Cognition, Inhibition, and Theory of
Mind: The Evolution of Human Intelligence.
4. J.L. Bradshaw, The Evolution of Intellect: Cognitive, Neurological, and
Primatological Aspects and Hominid Culture.
5. R.W. Byrne, The Primate Origins of Human Intelligence.
6. W.H. Calvin, Pumping Up Intelligence: Abrupt Climate Jumps and the
Evolution of Higher Intellectual Functions During the Ice Ages.
7. M.C. Corballis, Evolution of the Generative Mind.
8. L. Cosmides, J. Tooby, Unraveling the Enigma of Human Intelligence:
Evolutionary Psychology and the Multimodular Mind.
9. O. Flanagan, V.G. Hardcastle, E. Nahmias, Is Human Intelligence an
Adaptation? Cautionary Observations From the Philosophy of Biology.
10. P. Godfrey-Smith, Environmental Complexity and the Evolution of Cognition.
11. H.J. Jerison, On Theory in Comparative Psychology.
12. A. Lynch, Evolutionary Contagion in Mental Software.
13. I.M. Pepperberg, Evolution of Avian Intelligence, With an Emphasis on
Grey Parrots ( Psittacus erithacus).
14. H. Plotkin, Intelligence as Predisposed Skeptical Induction Engines.
15. P. Bloom, Get Smart.
My own contribution, "Evolutionary Contagion in Mental Software." includes
topics of astrological dating, belief in psychic powers, popularity of the
hypothesis that women have an innate partner wealth preference, the rise of
Nazism and neo-Nazism, US slavery and racism, the belief in corporal
punishment of children, the role of accelerating evolution in rising IQ
test averages, the possible (ironic) effect of neo-Nazi and other racist
ideologies in diminishing genetic and environmental components of
individual and population intelligence, and the evolution of intelligence
in the presence of mind-enhancing technologies. The chapter might help to
remind some readers that evolutionary cultural replicator theory does not
depend upon the terms "meme," "ideavirus," "culturegen," etc. or the
definition disputes. Henry Plotkin's chapter has a section making some
general comments on work done using the word "meme." I do not believe he
read my chapter in advance, nor did I read his chapter until receiving the
whole book in hard cover.
--Aaron Lynch
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