Seems to me Hoffman’s whole philosophy rests on a category error. Yes, we have sensations that natural selection has conditioned us to have. And yes, those sensations do not reflect “objective” reality so much as what is adaptive to feel from a biological standpoint.

But no one ever said that sensations are “true” or “false.” They just ARE. Statements are true or false, and there is nothing contradictory about a biologically fit animal who has fit sensations, but also believes true statements. Because those statements are subjected to different criteria of selection, and the person who believes them is perfectly capable of applying them only in the specific contexts (like conducting a scientific experiment) where they would be relevant, and ignoring them otherwise (when they wouldn’t be fit from a biological standpoint).

I cover this in an article I wrote called “Evolution, Language, and the Horizon of Knowledge.”