William T. Dickens wrote:
>So far everyone's response ... has assumed that flirting is entirely
>instrumental. ... there is another explanation as well ... I see a lot of
>people flirting who have absolutely no intention of mating. ... they are
>just playing a game. Why would they do this if it wasn't fun? ... a lot
>of flirting is like dancing (which is itself a form of courtship) -- it is
>pursued for the fun of it and not exclusively as a means to an end. ...
OK, but the urge to do certain things "for fun" likely evolved for
instrumental reasons. I tend to take an evolutionary psychology perspective,
which insists that most behavior is instrumental at some level. Young animals
"play" in ways that seem instrumental practice at skills that will be
required as adults, such as chasing, hiding, etc. Similarly much of the play
of young humans can be understood as practicing for adult roles.
Presumably people who have no intention of mating at the moment can still
have an instrumental reason to stay in practice and watch out for new
possibilities. And even if their conscious reason for doing such things
is just "for fun", we can still understand such behavior as instrumental,
in the sense of seeing the evolutionary function served by having genes
that code for such ideas of fun.
Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
