Henry Plotkin

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Henry Plotkin
Born(1940-12-11)11 December 1940[1]
Johannesburg, South Africa
Died15 December 2021(2021-12-15) (aged 81)[2]
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of the Witwatersrand
Scientific career
FieldsEvolutionary theory, evolutionary epistemology, cultural evolution, evolutionary psychology
InstitutionsUniversity College London
Doctoral studentsKevin Lala, Cecilia Heyes

Henry Charles Plotkin (11 December 1940 – 15 December 2021) was a British evolutionary psychologist who applied Darwinian principles to the understanding of the mind, behavior, culture and knowledge.

Early life and education[edit]

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Plotkin completed his undergraduate studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.[1] In 1964, he relocated to the United Kingdom and earned a doctorate in physiological psychology from University College London in 1968.[1]

Academic career[edit]

From 1965 to 1972, Plotkin worked as a research scientist at the Medical Research Council. He spent two years (1970–1972) as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. Upon returning to the UK, he joined University College London as a lecturer. He was promoted to Reader in 1988 and became a professor in 1993. He was head of the Psychology Department at UCL from 1993 to 1998 [3] and was named Emeritus Professor in 2005.

His doctoral students include Kevin Lala and Cecilia Heyes.[citation needed]

Contributions[edit]

  • Evolutionary Psychology: Plotkin's work helped establish the field of evolutionary psychology with accessible overviews like "Evolution in Mind" that explained how natural selection shaped the human mindy.[4] Plotkin applied evolutionary principles to psychological topics like learning, intelligence, and memory.
  • Cultural Evolution: Plotkin wrote extensively on evolution and culture.[5][6][7][8] In "The Imagined World Made Real," Plotkin brought an evolutionary approach to analyzing culture, arguing it evolves through Darwinian mechanisms.[9] This helped start the study of cultural evolution and gene-culture coevolution as scientific disciplines.
  • Behavior's Role in Evolution: Plotkin's book "The Role of Behavior in Evolution" underscored how behavior is not just an evolutionary outcome, but a key driver shaping trajectories.[10] This work influenced later research emphasizing animal agency in evolution through niche construction.
  • Evolutionary Epistemology: Plotkin pioneered the field of evolutionary epistemology, which analyzes the growth of knowledge from a Darwinian perspective.[11] In his "Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge", he proposed modeling the mind as a Darwin machine that accumulates knowledge via evolutionary processes of variation, selection, and retention.[12]

Bibliography[edit]

Books[edit]

  • Learning, Development and Culture: Essays in Evolutionary Epistemology (1982). Wiley–Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-471-10219-9
  • Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge (1994). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-19280-X
  • Evolution in Mind: An Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology (1998). Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-27120-3
  • The Imagined World Made Real: Towards a Natural Science of Culture (2002). Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9408-7
  • The Role of Behavior in Evolution, ed. (2008). The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-51222-0
  • Evolutionary Worlds without End. (2010). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954495-0

Articles[edit]

  • Pribram, K. H.; Plotkin, H. C.; Anderson, R. M.; Leong, D. (1977). "Information sources in the delayed alternation task for normal and 'frontal' monkeys". Neuropsychologia. 15 (2): 329–340.
  • Plotkin, Henry C.; Odling-Smee, F. J. (1979). "Learning, change, and evolution: an enquiry into the teleonomy of learning". In Advances in the Study of Behavior. 10: 1–41. Academic Press.
  • Plotkin, H.C.; Odling-Smee, F.J. (1979). "Learning, Change, and Evolution: An Enquiry into the Teleonomy of Learning". Advances in the Study of Behavior. 10: 1–41. doi:10.1016/S0065-3454(08)60092-3
  • Plotkin, H. C.; Odling-Smee, F. J. (1981). "A multiple-level model of evolution and its implications for sociobiology". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 4 (2): 225–235. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00008566
  • Heyes, Celia M.; Plotkin, Henry C. (1989). "Replicators and interactors in cultural evolution". In What the philosophy of biology is: Essays dedicated to David Hull. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. pp. 139–162.
  • Plotkin, H.C. (1987). "Evolutionary epistemology as science". Biol Philos. 2: 295–313. doi:10.1007/BF00128835
  • Plotkin, H.C. (1995). "Non-genetic transmission of information: Candidate cognitive processes and the evolution of culture". Behavioural Processes. 35 (1–3): 207–213. doi:10.1016/0376-6357(95)00056-9
  • Plotkin, Henry (2011). "Human nature, cultural diversity and evolutionary theory". Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 366: 454–463. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0160
  • Plotkin, Henry (2012). "The power of culture". In Barrett, Louise; Dunbar, Robin (eds.). Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. pp. 11–20. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198568308.013.0002 ISBN 978-0-19-856830-8

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Plotkin, Henry Charles (2011). Rubinstein, W.; Jolles, Michael A. (eds.). Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 760. ISBN 9780230304666. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  2. ^ [1] The Times Births, marriages and deaths: 22 December 2021
  3. ^ Hevern, Vincent W.; Valentine, Elizabeth R.; Spilka, Bernard; Gundlach, Horst; Thomas, Roger K.; Gundlach, Horst; Gundlach, Horst (2012). "University College London, History of Psychology at". Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories. pp. 1144–1146. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_222. ISBN 978-1-4419-0425-6.
  4. ^ Plotkin, Henry C. (1998). Evolution in Mind. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-27120-3.
  5. ^ Heyes, Celia M.; Plotkin, Henry C. (1989). "Replicators and interactors in cultural evolution". What the philosophy of biology is: Essays dedicated to David Hull. Springer Netherlands. pp. 139–162.
  6. ^ Plotkin, H.C. (1987). "Evolutionary epistemology as science". Biol Philos. 2 (3): 295–313. doi:10.1007/BF00128835.
  7. ^ Plotkin, H.C. (1995). "Non-genetic transmission of information: Candidate cognitive processes and the evolution of culture". Behavioural Processes. 35 (1–3): 207–213. doi:10.1016/0376-6357(95)00056-9.
  8. ^ Plotkin, Henry (2012). "The power of culture". In Barrett, Louise; Dunbar, Robin (eds.). Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Oxford University Press. pp. 11–20. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198568308.013.0002. ISBN 978-0198568308.
  9. ^ Plotkin, Henry (2002). The Imagined World Made Real: Towards a Natural Science of Culture. Allen Lane. ISBN 9780713994087.
  10. ^ Plotkin, Henry (2008). The Role of Behavior in Evolution. The MIT Press. ISBN 9780262512220.
  11. ^ Plotkin, H. C. (1987). "Evolutionary epistemology as science". Biology & Philosophy. 2 (3): 295–313. doi:10.1007/BF00128835.
  12. ^ Plotkin, Henry C. (1994). Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-19280-X.
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