Introduction

Mainstream directions of social sciences, including psychology, are rooted in Cartesian dualism(s), and label human–environment interaction in negativistic terms. The cartesian separation between inner and outer worlds positions persons against their environments as if they were substantially separated and distinct entities. Consequently, humans' agency (action/thinking/feelings) is predominantly understood as oriented on adaptation and tuning to their environment. Darwinian assumptions might seem reasonable for any other creature, but not for humans, who unlike any other living organisms are the only creatures who can consciously change their thinking/feelings/actions in reaction to environmental challenges, or even without explicit external stimulation. At the dawn of the psychological sciences, somewhere around the end of the 19th century, Baldwin proposed an alternative to the Darwinian approach, in the form of the idea of “organic selection” to reflect the dynamics of the evolutionary process.