#adaptationism

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A tall bank of open oak-and-glass specimen cabinets in a bright archive room holding a receding row of comparative-psychology testing apparatus, with a wheeled library ladder caught mid-roll along the row and a nearby drawer pulled only halfway out with its index cards fanned

Just-So or Just Right: How to Test an Evolutionary Story About the Mind

Anyone can invent an evolutionary story about the mind over coffee, which is Gould and Lewontin's oldest complaint. This article gives the toolkit that separates stories that survive testing from ones that don't, and runs two hypotheses through it in the open.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 30, 2026 · 25 min read

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