Weren't 18thc novelists doing the same thing by representing human nature in various settings? Certainly not Evo psychs original theory. https://twitter.com/HPluckrose/status/909365468556939264 …
No evolutionary psychologists claim that no-one knew a human nature existed before they came along.
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My point was 18thc authors were exploring what people should morally do in certain situations. Hence emphasis on human nature in 18thc lit.
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OK. I don't think anybody denies this. Religion and philosophy are also focused intensely on it. Humans are obsessed with themselves.
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So not a profoundly new hypothesis from evo psychs then?
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I don't know what you mean. Evo psychs hypothesise that humans developed literature as a way to explore different scenarios.
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My point is that authors of novels in 18thc lit were consciously doing it at the time. Hardly a profound hypothesis for modern evo psychs.
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But modern evo psychs didn't hypothesise this. They make hypotheses about evolution.
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Cf. Your comment clearly implies those guys first came up with it. That's what I was taking issue with.pic.twitter.com/iMF8hpBv9N
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Litersry scholars have known for ages that people wrote literature to work out moral questions.
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What I was pointing out that they did was hypothesise why we became a story telling species in the first place. What purpose did it serve?
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guess it's too late to discuss that some moral ideals have changed in lit lol