Re: Behaviorism vs. evolutionary psychology


"Don Geddis" <don@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:87d4yyzyyi.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
JGCASEY <jgkjcasey@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on Tue, 10 Jul 2007:
In theory yes they stripes or dots may have evolved purely by chance to
then be selected for the reproductive advantage they gave the owner. But
did they occur by chance? Or are they are common outcome due to the
physical nature of things?

Well, surely the physical world is the context in which natural selection
takes place. If you're going to wind up as a flying animal, I sure bet
that
your bones are going to be very light. This isn't really a consequence of
mutation, or of natural selection, but perhaps most easily understood as
a consequence of gravity and aerodynamics.

Sure, fine.

That just tells you that evolution is "looking" for a solution to a
problem,
and the problem is (partially) posed by physics (as well as partially by
the
ecosystem of other existing lifeforms).

But the _mechanism_ for the actual appearance of phenotypes is: mutation +
natural selection.

No! The mechanism is mutation plus other emergent-based mechanisms as put
forth in Biological Emergences: Evolution by Natural Experiment (Vienna
Series in
Theoretical Biology) by Robert G. B. Reid ,

Natual selection is a mechanism that works on the *products* of evolution,
but is not a factor in producing those products. Selection comes *after*
artifact production.

Agreed, those two won't tell you where a species will end
up; it only tells you that IF there is a possible solution in the
universe,
evolution may be able to find it. But it offers no guides as to what the
solution will be.

That is the aim of the book I mentioned; provide a guide (or a least
reasoned possibilities) based on emergence mechanisms.




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