Re: Behaviorism vs. evolutionary psychology

JGCASEY <jgkjcasey@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on Mon, 09 Jul 2007:
Although these evolutionary just so stories are fun to make up I think you
have to take them with some caution no matter how plausible they may seem.

I agree that just because a story is plausible, is only very weak evidence
that it might be true.

But surely you don't think that evolutionary psychologists try to further
their science merely by making up plausible stories? Their journal articles
are far more rigorous than that.

It is only AFTER they have established some explanatory theories, that we get
the popularizations of the stories for laypeople.

There are other factors such as the physics of matter and mathematics that
can explain some things such as the stripes of tigers or the spots of
leopards even if they are then subjected to natural selection. Natural
selection selects it does not create the things it selects. These are the
products of chance and necessity.

I'm not sure I quite understand your point. Of course evolution requires
both mutation and natural selection. It is mutation, where the genotype
becomes expressed phenotype, that new traits appear in nature.

How doe that fail to explain the tiger stripes or leopard spots? More
specifically, how does "the physics of matter and mathematics" explain the
tiger stripes and leopard spots? I don't understand the explanation you
have in mind.

Why evoke natural selection to explain the shape of the ibex's horn when
simple mathematics could do the job?

Mutation + natural selection seems an adequate ("sufficient") explanation
for ibex horn shape. We have a mechanism, we know about the details (DNA
encoding), etc.

What part "simple mathematics" leads you to predict ibex horn shape?

I'm really not understanding your comment...

-- Don
_______________________________________________________________________________
Don Geddis http://don.geddis.org/ don@xxxxxxxxxx
Agony: Not all pain is gain. -- Despair.com
.

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