Evolutionary psychology: Issues, results, debates

Abstract

This chapter, supposed to introduce to the next four chapters devoted to evolutionary psychology, defi nes and explains the program of “evolutionary psychology” as it has been initiated in the 80s and then developed. It sketches the main explananda of this project, specifi es the major assumptions, sketches some major points of methodological and philosophical controversy that arose in the last decade, and indicates some applications to specifi c questions.