I was thinking of parsimony and consistency with data, myself. Honestly, though, I haven't read the book and should do so.
At 8:07 AM -0600 1/8/02, Mike Scoles wrote: >By what criterion are you judging other explanations to be "better?" An >evolutionary explanation would appear to be more parsimonious. > >Faith Florer wrote: > >> I agree that we discount the role of biology far too often. >> >> However, I still don't accept the evolutionary perspective if it states >> that genetic relatedness somehow leads to more altruism or less violence. >> All of the genetic relatedness statements I've seen on this list could be >> explained without the evolutionary perspective better. >> >> For example, the studies looking at wills don't split out biological from >> adoptive parents. (Paperwork is changed when babies are adopted to make the >> babies look biologically related.) The studies about boy babies don't seem >> take into account the differences in fragility and difficulty of boys >> versus girl babies. (I dimly remember that boy babies are more likely to >> die in all households.) The stuff about maternal closeness doesn't take >> into account the social closeness of mothers to children. (You'd likely >> find the same closeness to maternal families when adoptions occur.) The >> strongest arguments for evolutionary caring seem to come from data on step >> parenting, which have a lot of problems. As Herb Coleman pointed out, it >> would be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to control for all >> of the factors that lead to a step parent taking on the role of a parent. >> >> Finally, I would bet that social workers etc. would be more likely to look >> for and call children 'abused' by nonbiological relatives. > >***************************************************************** >* Mike Scoles * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * >* Department of Psychology * voice: (501) 450-5418 * >* University of Central Arkansas * fax: (501) 450-5424 * >* Conway, AR 72035-0001 * * >********* http://www.coe.uca.edu/psych/scoles/index.html ******** > > > >--- >You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 914-738-1147 fax: 914-738-1078 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
