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    <h1>Evolutionary psychology needs Falconer and Mackay</h1>
    <h3 class='site'>
      <a href='/'>Affinity&thinsp;<span class='amp'>&amp;</span> its residual</a>
    </h3>
    <p class='slogan'>Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis</p>
    <h4 class='section'>
      <a href='/record/temperament'>Temperament of man and beast</a>
    </h4>
    <div class='intro'><p>That book i&#8217;m throwing at you is titled <em>evolutionary quantitative genetics</em>.</p></div>
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      <p>&#8220;Not possible&#8221; has a rather poor track record. Technical advancement quickly turns the impossible into the routine. Yet when the charge of &#8220;not possible&#8221; is made against answering questions for which rudimentary tools already exist, this technician is baffled.</p>
      
      <p><a href='http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/eysenck.shtml'>Eysenck</a> realized that philosophers and theologians often speak on topics proper to psychology without knowledge of either the facts or methods of that discipline. Today, evolution occupies much the same territory. Your compulsory education probably covered evolution insufficiently, if at all. Evolutionary<em>+</em>psychology becomes an impotent mix.</p>
      <div class='marginalia'><p>An informative pedigree helps, too.</p></div>
      <p>A common charge against evolutionary psychology is that we do not have enough data—and, more importantly, never will—to reconstruct the events that led to our current cognitive faculties. But evolution is <strong>not just</strong> phylogenetics, palæontology, or history. As a science it describes processes that play continuously. It is possible to measure the strength of selection on most any trait you wish. All an intrepid naturalist needs is cunning and the right kind of ruler.</p>
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    <div class='author'>MJA</div>
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