Resumen de De una vindicación de Pangloss: puntualizaciones para una historia de la mente
A vindication for Pangloss. Some issues on the history of mindThis paper recalls the famous discussion on adaptationism put forward in 1979 by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin, in which the work of Voltaire “Candide or optimism” was used to contextualizes some tendencies when reconstructing the evolutionary past of the human mind. The theoretical considerations by Daniel C. Dennett’s “panglossian reasoning” or “adaptationist program” are essential for the further empirical research in evolutionary psychology. It becomes impossible to historize the mind without a vindication of Pangloss, stronghold of the “reason” inherent in any optimal solution in nature, recognizing as well the constraints imposed by randomness and contingency. Finally, the text presents a set of criteria that should guide the explanations about the mind’s past, taking the cautious stand of Martin and Candide towards the findings of Pangloss about the “rationale” of things arranged in the world.
