Philosophical Psychology 25 (6):873-892 (2012)
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A number of debates in philosophy of biology and psychology, as well as in their respective sciences, hinge on particular views about the relationship between genotypes and phenotypes. One such view is that the genotype-phenotype relationship is relatively straightforward, in the sense that a genome contains the ?genes for? the various traits that an organism exhibits. This leads to the assumption that if a particular set of traits is posited to be present in an organism, there must be a corresponding number of genes in that organism's genome to account for those traits. This assumption underlies what can be called the ?counting argument,? in which empirical estimates of the number of genes in a genome are used to support or refute particular hypotheses in philosophical debates about biology and psychology. In this paper, we assess the counting argument as it is used in discussions of the alleged massive modularity of the brain, and conclude that this argument cannot be upheld in light of recent philosophical work on gene concepts and empirical work on genome complexity. In doing so, we illustrate that there are those on both sides of the debate about massive modularity who rely on an incorrect view of gene concepts and the nature of the genotype-phenotype relationship
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DOI | 10.1080/09515089.2011.616268 |
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References found in this work BETA
The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture.Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides & John Tooby - 1992 - Oxford University Press.
The Mind Doesn’T Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology.Jerry A. Fodor - 2000 - MIT Press.
Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature.David J. Buller - 2005 - MIT Press.
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Citations of this work BETA
Exploring Relationships Among Belief in Genetic Determinism, Genetics Knowledge, and Social Factors.Niklas Gericke, Rebecca Carver, Jérémy Castéra, Neima Alice Menezes Evangelista, Claire Coiffard Marre & Charbel N. El-Hani - 2017 - Science & Education 26 (10):1223-1259.
Constructive Criticism: An Evaluation of Buller and Hardcastle's Genetic and Neuroscientific Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology.Catherine Driscoll - 2014 - Philosophical Psychology 27 (6):907-925.
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