Nick, Is it possible that "behavioral patterns" is similar to what I called "dominant themes of motivation" when Glen suggested that I was over discretizing.
Frank ---- Frank Wimberly www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 Phone (505) 670-9918 On Feb 21, 2018 11:42 PM, "Nick Thompson" <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > Glen and Steve, > > The reason that I am not answering is not that good points aren't being > made, but that I am in the midst of a writing project and it's not going > well, which means that I am carrying blocks of ill organized text around in > my head like so many 747's just after the air traffic control system went > down. If I stop to think about anything else, I am afraid they will all > crash. > > I am inclined to share Steve's view that behavior is where the rubber > meets the road, and so to agree that talk of the evolution of behavior > makes sense. Let me risk one thought. Let's imagine that (as I believe) > that testosterone is an aggression hormone. It's effect on the nervous > system is, other things being equal, to make a person a tad more assertive > in all domains of action. Let it be the case that a little more > assertiveness in all domains leads to reproductive success. The nature > will be selecting not for the individual behaviors but for the "style" of > behaving. Now, I call a style of behaving, a behavior, or a behavior > pattern, or a meta-behavior, or a behavioral design. What have you. So > talk of selecting for behavior doesn't bother me. I am not quite sure what > "selecting for testosterone" would mean. When it comes to evolution, > behavior functions, physiology mediates. > > Nick > > Nicholas S. Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > Clark University > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Steven A Smith > Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2018 2:40 PM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] the pseudoscience of evolutionary psychology? > > Glen - > > OK. But I believe I merely asked the question: Why talk about these > vague behaviors like "dress for sex", when we can talk about reasonably > well-defined things like hormones and neurotransmitters? What explanatory > power does evopsych have that, say, evolutionary neuroscience would not > have? > A question, yes, but "mere" I don't think so? > > > > One possible answer is that evopsych allows us to tap into folktales > like Jungian archetypes, even if only so we can trick people into believing > our rhetoric. > while "rhetoric" is defined to be "persuasive", the goal might be to > persuade others to consider a hypothesis long enough to investigate it > further. On one end of the spectrum, your speculation is probably > accurate, sometimes some people simply want to be "right" or "believed" > (or may not care or know the difference?) but on the other, they may > simply want to engage other's in a little broader speculation as part of > expanding a search space? > > That trickery is power of a kind, explanatory or not. Science > popularizers walk that thin line all the time. But is there something > *more*? > Science Popularizers are a good (positive I think) example, but again, on > the opposite end of the spectrum I think "guided speculation" has a value > when combined/juxtaposed with more rigorous/formal methods for > *validating* insights found during the wider ranging speculations? Where > does intuition come from? It would seem to find a good launching pad on > the foundation of good formalized, quantifiable work, but it also would > seem to be fed well by more qualitative and perhaps even verging on > "whimsical" considerations? > > > > Re: thread pollution -- > > I don't think it's a big deal. The forum is asynchronous. Anyone can > read or not read, reply or not reply, to any post at any time. It was > easier, I'll admit, when the archives worked. > I wasn't necessarily thinking of this as pollution (or any kind of > problem)... but rather speciation... more on the exploration theme? It was > a conjunction with my nod to Nick's original (early) appeal to those of us > with higher bandwidths to somehow keep him in the loop as (even if?) we > might explore (more) widely than he was seeking. > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove