Many little baby ghosts in the machine

Evolutionary psychology (EP) proposes that human behavior is governed by a large toolbox of modular, domain-specific Darwinian adaptations. These evolved as a function of addressing specific adaptive problems in the human evolutionary past. This perspective holds some promise when combined with a consideration of domain-general Darwinian adaptations and sets of adaptations like operant and social learning that evolved as a function of solving more novel, unknown and general adaptive problems. However, belonging to a cognitive paradigm, EP still retains a mentalistic and computationalistic account even as it emphasizes domain-specific adaptations almost exclusively. In some important respects, thus, the ghost in the machine may well have been replaced by many little baby ghosts in the machine rather than sound concepts of a natural behavioral science. Weaknesses and strengths of this approach are assessed from a standpoint of interdisciplinary behavioral science.