Values, Practices, and Metaphysical Assumptions in the Biological Sciences

Weaver, Sara; Fehr, Carla

doi:10.4324/9781315758152-27

“…Essentialism is also evident in the philosophy of biology adopted here, which seems to assume sex differences between men and women as fundamental, fixed differences that determine the described patterns of behavior different for both sexes (Weaver & Fehr, 2017). The association of men with risky and aggressive behaviors and women with caring, aloof, and cautious behaviors may promote the reinforcement of stereotypes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The women's research methodology assumed by the SAT assumes a dominance relationship, or at least creates the illusion that women function within an environment that is the result of structures based on a dominance relationship (Weaver & Fehr, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An expanded “staying alive” theory (SAT) underplays complexity in Homo sapiens

Fuentes

¹

2022

Behav Brain Sci

0

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“…Essentialism is also evident in the philosophy of biology adopted here, which seems to assume sex differences between men and women as fundamental, fixed differences that determine the described patterns of behavior different for both sexes (Weaver & Fehr, 2017). The association of men with risky and aggressive behaviors and women with caring, aloof, and cautious behaviors may promote the reinforcement of stereotypes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The women's research methodology assumed by the SAT assumes a dominance relationship, or at least creates the illusion that women function within an environment that is the result of structures based on a dominance relationship (Weaver & Fehr, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Staying alive includes adaptations for catalyzing cooperation

Cassar

¹

2022

Behav Brain Sci

1

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The target article interprets women's lower competitiveness than men's as evidence of adaptation to help women avoid physical conflicts and stay alive. This commentary advances the additional hypothesis that strategically suppressing competitiveness, thus signaling egalitarian intentions, could be an adaptation to catalyze cooperative behavior from males and females, turning natural competitors (other women) into allies and men into supportive partners.

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“…2003) contains seventeen critiques of Thornhill and Palmer's work. For recent critiques, see Alcoff(2018), Weaver and Fehr(2017), and Weaver (2019). 18) Sanday(2003), 342-343. mention the naturalistic fallacy several times in their book, which include the following:…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary Psychology, Rape, and the Naturalistic Fallacy

Kong¹

2021

JSPS

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【Abstract】Feminist critics of evolutionary psychology are often accused of committing the naturalistic fallacy, that is, of inferring certain normative conclusions from evolutionary psychology's purely descriptive accounts. This article refutes the accusation of the naturalistic fallacy, by showing that evolutionary psychology's accounts of human behavior are not purely descriptive, but rather grounded on biased value judgments. A paradigmatic example is Randy Thornhill and Craig Palmer's well-known book A Natural History of Rape. I argue that at least three biased judgments are at work in Thornhill and Palmer's evolutionary psychology account of rape: (1)adaptationist approaches to evolution, (2) willful ignorance of cultural and social context, and (3) binary understanding of gender and sex. In that Thornhill and Palmer's account cannot hold without the three biased value judgments, it is not a purely factual description of rape. Therefore, feminist concerns over its normative implications do not commit the naturalistic fallacy, as it is not the case that they infer a normative conclusion from a pure description.

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Values, Practices, and Metaphysical Assumptions in the Biological Sciences

Cited by 21 publications

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An expanded “staying alive” theory (SAT) underplays complexity in Homo sapiens

An expanded “staying alive” theory (SAT) underplays complexity in Homo sapiens

Staying alive includes adaptations for catalyzing cooperation

Evolutionary Psychology, Rape, and the Naturalistic Fallacy

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