In a message dated 8/25/2004 9:31:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: This is similar to what Dan mentioned about Ghengis Khan -- but it's still disseminating genes, not actually changing a species. At best rape might be *neutral* evolutionarily -- neither favored nor selected against -- but I'm still unconvinced that it can be said to actually be selected for in the evolutionary scheme.
It is a strategy that probably exists in all males (the potential for rape). Under some circumstances it is activated. It may not be selected for per see but males want to procreate and are willing to use physical coercion to make this happen. Humans have a host of genetically installed behaviors that are used contingently (if you see a bear run like crazy unless you have a gun). Rape may be one of these. If you have no other opportunity to procreate try rape. Your chances of success are low but they are better than nothing. Of course there are other equally genetic traits that mitigate against this, which is why the vast majority of men do not rape even when their chances for procreation are small. > That's not evolved; the only reason one would have guilt after rape would be if one believed it to be a bad thing. Guilt is a socially-created phenomenon. Ah but here you are wrong. Guilt serves a very useful purpose in social animals that use recipricol altruism. It is an internal and largely unconscious talleying up of whether one's actions are likley to be viewed as reasonable by other members of the society. Guilt is an internal sense of whether one is behaving correctly and therefore it is a inhibitor of selfish behavior. The advantage to the organism that can feel guilt is that it gets to stay in the society and since that is what all social animals wish to do, guilt is very useful. > Morality is in fact an evolved feature, Self-sacrifice is an evolved > trait, It is really not sacrifice but rather either kin selection or > recipricol > altruism. The two things are discrete, though -- morality (whatever that is) is not equivalent to self-sacrifice or vice-versa. Self-sacrifice, as you suggest, can be selected for. > Both of these behaviors increase the reproductive success of a social > animal. Morality is the way we keep score in recipricol altruism. That's an interesting take on it that I hadn't considered before. For more literate explanations than I can provide of such things read Robert Wright's "The Moral Animal" or Steven Pinkers "How the Mind Works". _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
