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Seeing the elephant: Parsimony, functionalism, and the emergent design of contempt and other sentiments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2017

Matthew M. Gervais  and
Daniel M. T. Fessler
Matthew M. Gervais
Affiliation:
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402. matthewmgervais@gmail.com www.matthewgervais.net Center for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1414
Daniel M. T. Fessler
Affiliation:
Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553. dfessler@anthro.ucla.edu www.danielmtfessler.com Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553
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Abstract

The target article argues that contempt is a sentiment, and that sentiments are the deep structure of social affect. The 26 commentaries meet these claims with a range of exciting extensions and applications, as well as critiques. Most significantly, we reply that construction and emergence are necessary for, not incompatible with, evolved design, while parsimony requires explanatory adequacy and predictive accuracy, not mere simplicity.

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Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e252
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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