RE: Whitehead on Deduction (fwd)

["John M. Legge" <jlegge@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dawkins is Professor of the Understanding of Science and is not a
sociobiologist.  In his "Selfish Gene" he makes it quite clear that the
evolution of human society is not repeat not based in genetics, excepting
the  obvious point that physical human beings are the result of a sequence
of genetically determined evolutionary changes.  I am not aware of any
non-crank who disputes the genetic basis of biological evolution.  The
fundamental premise of sociobiology is based on a genetic analogy, not
genetics, and asserts that behaviour that increases reproductive
opportunities and reproductive success (whether learned or genetic) will
tend to displace behaviour without these attributes.  Sociobiologists have
not been able to turn this insight into the basis of a predictive science
but are good at developing plausible explanations of behaviour post facto.

The failure of sociobiology to develop a predictive science of human
behaviour is analogous to the failure of economists to do so either and has
a common fundamental cause in the intrinsic complexity or nonergodicity of
human society.  Sociobiologists deserve credit for being able to point to
actual behaviour, since large numbers of people can be observed in most
social situations pursuing reproductive opportunities in devious but
purposeful ways.  This makes more sense than the pursuit of "utility", a
substance that only exists as a difference and has no ordinal value at all.

Dawkins's chapter "nice guys finish first" has been a starting point for
millions of people's discovery of Axelrod and Hamilton and the evolution of
cooperation.  In the same book he describes "memes" as a convenient analogy
for the development and transmission of behaviour patterns, making it
entirely clear that memes are not genes.

JML


> -----Original Message (part)-----
> From: owner-pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Richard DAwkins, _Selfish Gene_ (he is a  prof of Zoology at
> Oxford and
> a socio-biologist)
>
>