tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post4686646928486445885..comments2024-03-28T08:57:53.180+00:00Comments on Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart: Darwinian Political ScienceLarry Arnharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-45009432439214004312007-05-06T22:14:00.000+01:002007-05-06T22:14:00.000+01:00"Just so stories"? How would you back up this cha..."Just so stories"? How would you back up this charge?<BR/><BR/>Why don't you respond to the detailed evidence and arguments that I have laid out in DARWINIAN NATURAL RIGHT and DARWINIAN CONSERVATISM?<BR/><BR/>For example, in chapter 5 of DARWINIAN NATURAL RIGHT, I survey the evidence for mother-child bonding as natural and argue that this explains why the utopian effort (from Plato to the present) to abolish this bond is contrary to human nature. Would you say that this is wrong? Would you say that the mother-child bond is not biologically natural, but is rather an arbitrary social construction? If so, please explain exactly where my arguments go astray.Larry Arnharthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-61250585448534065562007-05-06T15:24:00.000+01:002007-05-06T15:24:00.000+01:00The generalities here are all pretty anodyne, but,...The generalities here are all pretty anodyne, but, as with all efforts to appropriate natural selection for political ends, I worry about the specific applications. There are lots of just-so stories that can be told about the evolutionary roots of human behaviours. But the point of just-so stories in evolutionary thinking is not as evidence for a particular hypothesis-- they are used (as Jim Lennox has very convincingly shown) to indicate possible paths by which natural selection could produce particular traits. When successful, they show no more than that what we now observe could be the result of natural selection. Worse, of course, is the shift from evolutionary origins to conclusions about constraints on present behaviour and normative advice on ethics or politics, which is a pure non-sequitur.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-47154087068449341132007-04-19T18:26:00.000+01:002007-04-19T18:26:00.000+01:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com