Domain Mismatches, Scruffy Engineering, Exaptations and Spandrels

Abstract

Evolutionary psychology invokes the concept of a mismatch between the past and the present with regard to characteristics of the environment whilst maintaining that human minds are comprised of the same psychological adaptations. This paper addresses the question ‘how do “old” adaptations successfully accommodate novel environments?’ An answer comes by recourse to Gould’s (1991, 1997; Gould & Lewontin, 1979; Gould & Vbra, 1982) terms ‘exaptation’ and ‘spandrel’. Ostensibly antithetical to these ideas, I show how evolutionary psychology invites their use. Unless evolutionary psychology wants to deny the orthodox claims that adaptations are not optimally designed and that humans exhibit novel behaviours in terms of precedent in natural history, a consequence of this is that there is no evolutionary account of some common and important behaviours. Alternatively, if evolutionary psychology as a form of ‘strong’ adaptationism insists that novel behaviours are the product of directly selected adaptations, I examine the suggestion that adaptations are ‘ scruffily’ engineered, and show how this undermines the aspirations of the adaptationist programme in psychology as it has been expressed by Tooby and Cosmides (1992, 1995).