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Massive Modularity and Brain Evolution.

Quartz (2002) argues that some recent findings about the evolution of the brain (Finlay and Darlington 1995) are inconsistent with evolutionary psychologists' massive modularity hypothesis. In substance, Quartz contends that since the volume of the neocortex evolved in a concerted manner, natural se...

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Published in:Philosophy of Science Vol. 74; no. 5; pp. 825 - 839
Main Author: Machery, Edouard
Format: Article
Published: Cambridge University Press Dec2007
Subjects:
Cognition
Biological evolution
Evolutionary psychology
Brain function localization
Neurosciences
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Summary:Quartz (2002) argues that some recent findings about the evolution of the brain (Finlay and Darlington 1995) are inconsistent with evolutionary psychologists' massive modularity hypothesis. In substance, Quartz contends that since the volume of the neocortex evolved in a concerted manner, natural selection did not act on neocortical systems independently of one another, which is a necessary condition for cognition to be massively modular. In this article, I argue that Quartz's argument fails to undermine the massive modularity hypothesis.