INDIVIDUALISM AND EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY (OR - IN DEFENSE OF NARROW FUNCTIONS)

Millikan (1993) and Wilson (1994) argue, for different reasons, that t he essential reference to the environment in adaptationist explanation s of behavior makes (psychological) individualism inconsistent with ev olutionary psychology. I show that their arguments are based on misint erpretations of the role of reference to the environment in such expla nations. By exploring these misinterpretations, I develop an account o f explanation in evolutionary psychology that is fully consistent with individualism. This does not, however, constitute a full-fledged defe nse of individualism, since evolutionary psychology is only one explan atory paradigm among many in psychology.