Good stuff! I’m bookmarking this for future reference.
I particularly liked this point:
Thus, impulsivity can be understood as an adaptive response to the contingencies present in an unstable environment rather than a moral failure in which animalistic drives overwhelm human rationality.
I hate the false dichotomy of “animalistic” vs “rational”, because animals are highly rational. They are even better than humans at some high-level tasks! For example: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/surprising-results-game-theory-studies-42926
That said, I don’t think the lack of a physical basis should dissuade anyone from thinking of psychology in terms of evolution. Regardless of the physical structure of the brain, I think it is reasonable to consider that high-level human behavior has origins going far back in our evolutionary chain, and that we share much of that with our animal cousins. In any case, this idea should be supported by behavioral research, not by an appeal to neurology — and particularly not by an appeal to fake neurology.
Other lamentation is the tendency to see development as to the ‘advanced’ or ever more refined and always a strict linear progression in one singular direction which isn’t a good reflection of reality. Behavior of anything is modulated by environmental factors, ex adapting to the said situation even if its not ideal in our eyes allows said thing to persist.
That was a good read
Hold on, shifting paradigm
Kinda wish I’d taken some comparative biology when I had the chance
