Introduction to Psychology: Lecture 11 TranscriptFebruary 21, 2007 backProfessor Paul Bloom: On Monday we-I presented an introduction to evolutionary psychology, the looking at psychology from an evolutionary perspective, and trying to make a case and give some examples of how it can help illuminate and illustrate certain aspects of how the mind works. One of the advantages of an evolutionary perspective on the mind is that it forces us to look scientifically at what we would otherwise take for granted. There are a lot of aspects of how we are and what we are and what we do that seem so natural to us. They come so instinctively and easily its difficult, and sort of unnatural, to step back and explore them scientifically but if were going to be scientists and look at the mind from a scientific perspective we have to get a sort of distance from ourselves and ask questions that other people would not normally think to ask. And the clearest case of this arises with the emotions. And as a starting point theres a lovely quote from the psychologist and philosopher William James that I want to begin with. So, he writes:To the psychologist alone can such questions occur as: Why do we smile when pleased and not scowl? Why are we unable to talk to a crowd as we talk to a single friend? Why does a particular maiden turn our wits upside down? The common man-None of you are the common man. The common man can only say, “Of course we smile. Of course our heart palpitates at the sight of the crowd. Of course we love the maiden. And so probably does each animal feel about the particular things it tends to do in the presence of certain objects. To the lion it is the lioness which is made to be loved; to the bear the she-bear. To the broody hen, the notion would probably seem monstrous that there should be a creature in the world to whom a nestful of eggs was not utterly fascinating and precious and never to be too-much-sat- upon object which it is to her.Now, theres a few things to note about this passage. First, its incredibly sexist. It assumes not just merely in reflexive use of phrases. It assumes that-William James assumes hes talking to males, male humans who sometimes take the perspective of male bears. And so, it assumes a male audience. You wouldnt normally-You wouldnt actually ever write this way. A second point is its beautifully written and youre not- ;also, not allowed to write that way anymore either. Its poetic and lyrical and if-William James characteristically writes that way. I think he writes so much better than his brother, Henry James, an obscure novelist. laughter Finally though, the point that he makes is a terrific one, which is yes, all of these things seem natural to us but the reason why they seem natural is not because they are in some sense necessary or logical truths. Rather, they emerge from contingent aspects of our biological nature.And so we need to step back. We actually-We need to step back and ask questions like- and these are questions were going to ask-Why does poop smell bad? Avoid the temptation to say, “Well, poop smells bad because its so stinky.“ The stinkiness of poop is not an irreducible fact about the universe. Rather, the stinkiness of poop is a fact about human psychology. To a dung beetle poop smells just fine. Why does chocolate taste good? Well, chocolate-The good tastiness of chocolate isnt some necessary fact about the world. Its a fact about our minds that doesnt hold true for many other creatures. And so, we have to step back and ask why to us do we find chocolate appealing?Why do we love our children? Dont say theyre lovable. Many of them are not laughter and, as William James points out, every animal, most animals, many animals love their children. They think their children are precious and wonderful. Why? Why do we get angry when people hit us? Suppose somebody walked up to you and slapped you in the face? Youd be afraid. Youd be angry. Would you get sleepy, feel nostalgic, suddenly desire some cold soup? laughter No. Those are stupid alternatives. Of course if somebody slapped us you would-we would get angry or afraid. Why? Why do we feel good when someone does us a favor? Why dont we feel angry? Why dont we feel fearful? What were going to do throughout this course is step back and ask these questions. Were going to ask questions nobody would have otherwise thought to ask, where the common man wouldnt address, and this is, of course, standard in all sciences.The first step to insight is to ask questions like why do things fall down and not up? And I imagine the first person who articulated the question aloud probably met with the response saying, “What a stupid question. Of course things fall down.“ Well, yes, of course things fall down, but why? Why is our flesh warm? Why does water turn solid when it gets cold? These are natural facts about the universe, but the natur