Introduction to evolutionary epistemology, language and culture.

Evolutionary epistemology (EE) is about developing a normative framework, based upon evolutionary thinking, that can explain all of an organism’s phylogenetic and ontogenetic evolution. (1) EE is sketched as an inter- and transdisciplinary field that evolved out of naturalized epistemology as a reaction against logical empiricism and sociology of knowledge. (2) Different schools of evolutionary epistemological thinking are examined and compared. (3) It is argued that within EE today, the search for a normative evolutionary framework is narrowed down to the development of a framework based upon Neo-Darwinian theory. Because of this, other evolutionary theories that are very useful to explain certain phenomena are neglected. (4) These theories are briefly discussed. (5) It is shown how EE can be implemented in the scientific study of language and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]