^^^^ CB On this, do you consider that _any_ human psychological characteristics are the result of natural selection, or that none at all are ? I would say that altruism bestowed naturally selective advantage on humans. Our high level of sociality is adaptive in the Darwinian sense . This is the exact opposite of bourgeois social "darwinism".
^^^^ The claim "if X exists in a species, X must be the result of natural selection" is a pernicious and simplistic misrepresentation of modern evolutionary theory. The more we ridicule the claim, the better.
Miles
^^^^^^^ CB: I think we should take a different approach. We should argue that humans' sociality and culture bestowed adaptive advantage on our species, and that , if not "justice", then "love" and altruism are part of the original human essence. I use "essence" instead of "nature", because I'm saying that culture, that defining characteristic of our species, is fundamentally social and altruistic. (Or it was; it has turned into its opposite in many ways with the rise of class antagonistic society).
Many or most human traits and characteristics of behavior are not in our genes , but are learned as part of culture. As you always say, we are largely socially determined. _But that we are mostly socially determined was itself naturally selected for_. The plasticity of our being socially determined bestowed greater Darwinian fitness on us. So, culture itself (as your X) does exist in us because culture was selected for.
It is basic anthropology that culture is an extrosomatic, non-bodily adaptive trait of humans. Culture was not just a neutral characteristic in terms of natural selection at human origins and after. Furthermore, culture bestows a non-Mendelian, LaMarckian-like adaptive mechanism on the human species. Culture allows humans to inherit acquired characteristics, which can't be done through genes Culture allows us to adapt more rapidly than adaption through genes.
The problem with evolutonary psychology is that it , and other social darwinisms, speculate on derivation of individualist/selfish traits in humans. They have a Robinsinade model , in Marx's terms ( after Robinson Crusoe surviving as an individual on an island) of human society.