What Rob Kurzban has said about Evolutionary psychology

Kurzban suggests conscious feeling serves as a common currency for comparing competing motivations like hunger and fear.

“And so I think consciousness, this experience we have is that common currency”

Modern Wisdom: 35 Emotions Explained By Evolutionary Psychology - Rob Kurzban - #1169 (Oct 29, 2026) · Listen from 3:25

Kurzban argues emotions measure adaptively relevant states inside or outside the body and then motivate behavior.

“emotions measure something in the body or outside the world, which is going to be adaptively relevant, and then get you to do something”

Modern Wisdom: 35 Emotions Explained By Evolutionary Psychology - Rob Kurzban - #1169 (Oct 29, 2026) · Listen from 3:50

Kurzban argues emotions show hallmarks of evolved adaptations rather than social construction.

“they look excruciatingly well-designed to execute their functions. Many of them have all the hallmarks of adaptations”

Modern Wisdom: 35 Emotions Explained By Evolutionary Psychology - Rob Kurzban - #1169 (Oct 29, 2026) · Listen from 1:18:22

Kurzban calls the just-so story critique a misunderstanding of how science and evolutionary psychology work.

“I think it's a misunderstanding of the way science works and what is happening in the field of evolutionary psychology”

Modern Wisdom: 35 Emotions Explained By Evolutionary Psychology - Rob Kurzban - #1169 (Oct 29, 2026) · Listen from 1:28:35