---
abstract: 'Millikan and Wilson argue, for different reasons, that the essential reference to the environment in adaptationist explanations of behavior makes (psychological) individualism inconsistent with evolutionary psychology. I show that their arguments are based on misinterpretations of the role of reference to the environment in such explanations. By exploring these misinterpretations, I develop an account of explanation in evolutionary psychology that is fully consistent with individualism. This does not, however, constitute a full-fledged defense of individualism, since evolutionary psychology is only one explanatory paradigm among many in psychology.'
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creators_name:
  - family: Buller
    given: David J.
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
date: 1997-03
date_type: published
datestamp: 1998-06-18
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dir: disk0/00/00/03/28
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eprintid: 328
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keywords: 'individualism, behavioral ecology, function, etiological theory, proximate mechanisms, selection'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:49
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metadata_visibility: show
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pagerange: 74-95
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publication: Philosophy of Science
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refereed: TRUE
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rev_number: 8
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status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:26:39
subjects:
  - bio-ani-behav
  - bio-etho
  - cog-psy
  - phil-mind
  - phil-sci
  - psy-bio
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title: "Individualism and Evolutionary Psychology (or: In Defense of 'Narrow' Functions)"
type: journalp
userid: 206
volume: 64
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