1.2 Mental Evolution Flashcards
Have living beings evolved or was supernatural creation involved?
Evolution widely accepted
What mechanism produces evolution?
Natural selection
Define natural selection.
The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring
Did humans evolve in the same way as other species?
Yes, slow acceptance to this.
What are the 3 steps in Lamarckian inheritance?
- The environment changes and produces new habits
- Law of disuse and use - the new habits produce physical changes
- Inheritance of acquired characteristics - physical characteristics are heritable
When did Darwin develop his ideas about evolution?
On his 5 1/2 year trip around the world
Looked at fossils which showed how animals had changed and died out etc
Where did Darwin write about a lot and what did he observe?
Galapagos Islands - different islands have different species
What is Darwin’s theory of natural selection?
- There is variation within populations
- This variation is inherited
- Some characteristics are more adaptive than others in the environment
- Individuals with adaptive characteristics more likely to produce more offspring with the same
- Adaptive variations become more common in next gen
- Environmental change and geographical isolation promote divergence between species
What topic did Huxley confront that Darwin ignored?
How human beings evolved
Confronted it in his book: Evidence of Man’s Place in Nature (1863)
What was Wallace the first to propose?
- Human selection shifts from physical to psychological
2. Social instincts attenuate natural selection process and prevent further intellectual evolution
What was Darwin’s reply to Wallace?
Human evolution occurred the same as other species
How did Darwin argue human intellectual and moral abilities evolved?
Human intellect is not unique - animals have minds as well
Used reasoning through apes - can find similarities with human mental characteristics in other animals
Speech through parrots - both humans and parrots learn speech through imitation
Moral sense - some species show altruistic behaviour eg. mother bird distracting predator from her nest of babies
Basic idea: mental evolution takes place like physical evolution and the human mind combines this in a unique way
What was Darwin’s basic idea in his reply to Wallace?
Mental evolution takes place the like physical evolution and the human mind combines this in a unique way
Romanes: how do we decide if a creature has a mind?
- It must have a nervous system
2. Its behaviour must be sensitive to past experience - there must be capacity for learning and memory
What did Romanes say about Lamarckian inheritance?
It played a role in mental evolution
Physical characteristics passed on as well as skils
Lapsed habits would become instincts