SCHOOL OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE
SYDNEY CENTRE FOR THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE
PRESENTS
SEMESTER TWO 2019 RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES
DR PETER TAKACS
[cid:c6ebdb29-0dc5-46f4-8bc0-e3ee1bb99960]
Assessing Fitness Functions in Selected Effects Accounts of Psychological
Dysfunction
Diagnosed medical disorders and pathologies—physiological, morphological,
behavioral, or psychological—presume contextual impropriety or systematic
dysfunction. Any such disorder accordingly implies an account of proper
functioning. For etiological-historical accounts informed by evolutionary
considerations (or “selected effects accounts”), dysfunction occurs when a
trait fails to perform the function whose effect on fitness was selected for in
[N]ormal conditions and, thereby, explains the origin or subsequent retention
of the trait. Selected effects accounts have recently been proposed for mental
disorders, such as depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Two distinct
approaches and seemingly inconsistent conclusions have subsequently emerged.
One approach maintains that common mental disorders are objectively
dysfunctional in an evolutionary sense and therefore focuses on elucidating the
genetic mechanisms which maintain susceptibility. Others have argued that at
least some common mental disorders might be developmental mismatches due to
phenotypic plasticity and, although genuine disorders, are not dysfunctional
from an evolutionary perspective. The cogency of either approach hinges on
which components of fitness are maximized. I examine how the two approaches
differ and whether the biological interpretations of the distinctive formal
fitness functions can be reconciled.
WHEN: MONDAY 28TH OCTOBER 2019
FROM: 5.30 PM
WHERE: LEVEL 5 FUNCTION ROOM
F23 ADMINISTRATION BUILDING CAMPERDOWN CAMPUS
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