Repeated assembly: Prospects for saying what we mean

Abstract

(from the chapter) In this chapter, it is argued that narrow evolutionary psychology is too impoverished for evolutionary perspectives at higher levels of analysis. Even if we agree that "genes for" particular traits can refer to "virtual genes" or to a chain of differential effects rather than the effects of specific DNA structures, we are left without words for connecting the concrete, observable activities of organisms to recurrence in meaningful ways. In contrast, repeated assembly is a term that allows us to see nature as having multiple joints, not necessarily mutually exclusive. Repeated assembly is not a new theory, but it is a vocabulary that enables us to say what we mean and mean what we say without specious claims about genes. The main goal of this paper is to sketch an alternative vocabulary based on the notion of recurrence, which is, after all, one of the primary observations that drives us to seek out evolutionary explanations. While any vocabulary of recurrence is more complex than one of simplex cause and effect, the complexity is worthwhile if it helps us to say what we mean and mean what we say. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)