Mark Jones wrote: > Worse, you are using the methods of evolutionary psyhcology: you > become little more than a left-wing sociobiologist, you substtitute a > (particularly hackeyed and ill-considered) social Darwnist determinsm for > any concrete understanding of the specific historical processes which shape > our world and shape relations between women and men. And as Dobzhansky said "nothing makes sense outside of evolution and evolution makes no sense outside of history." Evolutionary psychology is preposterous. The human mind as an adaptation to spread and pass on genes. It amounts to a conspiracy theory with genes conspiring to pass themselves on with everything else merely a means to that end. The motive of the conspiracy is not even known to the agent, the ultimate in plausible denial. There are in fact many different explanation that rationalise someone's behavior (some of which may be both be true--cognitive dissonance). Smith carries an umbrella because it is raining or Smith carries an umbrella because he wants to return it to its owner. Either explanation rationlises behavior. Interest in propagating the genome may explain your concern for your child's welfare but so would have interest in your child's welfare for its own sake. Having children, reading books, learning how to fix a car, are not thing that are done in of themselves for enjoyment or utilitarian purpose but part of the grand scheme for genes to spread themselves. Most of these things need no further explanation. There must be some things people care for just for its own sake. According to ev psych the evolution of behavior is a function of the evolution of the brain. Our closest ancestors are apes, so how much change in an ape's brain will yield a human mind and thus human behavior? An ape's brain is very much like a human's so small changes in the physical structure of the brain may yield large changes in behavior. The problem is nothing is known about how the mind or human behavior relates to the brain or how the structure of the mind/behavior depends on the structure of the brain. So if the right changes are made to an ape's brain, will the ape become human? Sam Pawlett _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
