ABSTRACT
The theory of evolution is often taken to be a triumph for naturalistic conceptions of the world. Karl Popper explicitly calls this theory of knowledge an evolutionary one, and elaborates on the parallel with biological evolution. Some evolutionists claim that it is progressive in milder senses: that there are long-term trends towards greater complexity, for example. This evolutionary reliabilist epistemology is not limited in this way. The argument for our beliefs being reliable can be applied to any kind of belief, provided that that belief, or beliefs acquired in the same way, made a difference to our distant ancestor's evolutionary fitness and, it should be added, provided that the right beliefs are physically attainable and within the creature's cognitive capacities. Since the modularity thesis is justified, in part, by evolutionary arguments, it seems that the theory of evolution lends strong support to the claim that there are strict limits to what we can understand.
