-----Original Message-----
From: Durant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Saturday, December 13, 1997 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: Capitalism fits OUR KIND OF ANIMAL
>I cannot see where the genetic evolution can be paralleled with
>the development of human social behaviour.
>I'm sure you read a lot of books I had no time for,
>but it is still social darwinism, that sounds to me totally
>irrational.
I think of "Social Darwinism" (SD) as a rationalization
of the stronger in society over the weaker. If that's how
you are using it, then SD is not science, it is politics.
>The human brain develops the possibilities of interconnectedness, but
>these interconnectedness only happens through individual experience.
Evolutionary theory is very well-established. It can be seen
by anyone who looks in the fossil record, or in the emergence
of disease-resistant bacteria. Evolutionary theory is about as
controversial as a theory that claims the Earth orbits the Sun.
All animals exhibit certain species-specific behavior. Have
you ever owned a cat? In animals we prefer to call their
propensity to act in certain ways: "instinct". We don't like
to think of ourselves as being motivated by "instincts", but
we are.
>development as it is not capable of using these for the survival of the
>species.
Evolution does not select for "survival of the species", it
selects for the "survival of the individual gene". Hence,
Dawkin's THE SELFISH GENE.
>Also I don't know in what way you are usin here Occam's razor.
According to a rule in science and philosophy called "Ockham's
Razor", the simplest of two or more competing theories is
preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena
should first be attempted in terms of what is already known.
Jung uses "archetypes" to explain innate behavior:
"Archetypes are typical modes of apprehension, and wherever
we meet with uniform and regularity recurring modes of
apprehension .... The collective unconscious consists
of the sum of the instincts and their correlates, the a
archetypes. Just as everyone possesses instincts, so
he also possesses a stock of archetypal images." [p. 37,
The Portable Jung]
Collective unconscious? <G> This isn't even science.
Jay
