The Human Mind Isn’t Perfect – Who Knew?

Gary Marcus is a professor of psychology at New York University and director of the NYU Infant Language Learning Center. In Kluge, Marcus tackles the structure of the human mind, focusing on its many quirks and shortcomings. He refers to the mind as a kluge; that is, “a clumsy or inelegant – yet surprisingly effective – solution to a problem” (p. 2). Furthermore, according to Marcus, the mind is comprised of many kluges, each built by natural selection to solve an adaptive problem. Suggested examples of kluges include memory, belief, and decision making, as well as language and pleasure seeking. Throughout the book, Marcus argues that these features of the mind result from evolution by natural selection, and that by examining these features from an evolutionary perspective, we can understand why they are accompanied by so many clumsy quirks. This evolutionary approach makes Kluge stand out among several recent books that address the structural and functional quirks of the mind (e.g., Brafman and Brafman, 2008; Fine, 2006; Tavris and Aronson, 2007). Unfortunately, the reader well-versed in modern evolutionary theory will find that this approach is not well executed. When we read that evolution by natural selection promotes what is best for the species, we become concerned about the author’s understanding of modern evolutionary theory, in general, and about the process of natural selection, in particular. These concerns are first triggered in chapter four (Pleasure), when Marcus states, “Pleasure is our guide, (...) and without it, the species wouldn’t propagate” (p. 124). A cursory review of the literature would reveal that this description of evolution by natural selection is severely outdated and, indeed, was thoroughly discredited by Williams (1966) nearly a half century ago. And this is not Marcus’s most egregious misunderstanding of evolution by natural selection. That title is reserved for Marcus’s references to optimality as an outcome of the process of natural selection.