[extropy-chat] Fwd: SURVIVAL: An impulse behind transhumanism?

[Jef Allbright]

On 6/30/06, Keith Henson <hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
> At 10:06 AM 6/30/2006 -0500, you wrote:
> >At 08:16 PM 6/29/2006, Keith wrote:
> >> >
> >> http://emotionalliteracyeducation.com/abraham-maslow-theory-human-motivation
> >> >.shtml
> >>
> >>While it isn't all wrong, this work is not rooted in science and is just
> >>full of BS.
> >>
> >>Maslow was a pioneer in the area, but he died long before the biology folks
> >>started shoving a science base under psychology.
> >
> >Please elaborate.
>
> http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html
>
> "The goal of research in evolutionary psychology is to discover and
> understand the design of the human mind. Evolutionary psychology is an
> approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary
> biology are put to use in research on the structure of the human mind. It
> is not an area of study, like vision, reasoning, or social behavior. It is
> a way of thinking about psychology that can be applied to any topic within it.
>
> "In this view, the mind is a set of information-processing machines that
> were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our
> hunter-gatherer ancestors."
>
> Evolutionary psychology may not be the ultimate way to understanding
> humans, but in my view is superior to any other approach I know
> about.  Even if it is somewhat depressing.
>

Keith, I agree with you that Maslow operated without the benefit of
current thinking in evolutionary psychology (and it shows), but
wouldn't you agree that his hierarchy of needs still generally holds
and was intended to be descriptive while evolutionary psychology is
intended to be explanatory?

- Jef