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Posted by anthonyberet on 09/20/05 09:39
hawat.thufir@gmail.com wrote:
> anthonyberet wrote:
> ...
>
>>It would be a survival feature if a plant or animal were to gain an
>>advantage without expenditure of its own resources.
>>However, it is unwise to try to apply natural selection to human society.
>
>
> Evolution does apply to humans, though. I don't subscribe to "social
> darwinism," which is what I assume you're referencing, but that doesn't
> at all mean that evolution doesn't apply to humans, which includes
> culture.
>
> In the animal kingdom I can imagine two biologically "identical" groups
> competing, with one surviving because of different learned behaviour,
> which the other group, by chance, never learned. That's survival. Of
> course, that example can't be extrapolated to draw the conclusion that
> one group was superior, only that one behaviour was better for a
> specific scenario. It's difficult to tease out cause and effect, I
> imagine.
>
> In that sense, sure, why not apply "evolution" to culture? Certainly,
> cultures compete with each other.
I agree - but it is still unwise to try to explain social phenomena in
Darwinistic terms, not least because of the complexities and difficulty
in obtaining good data.
Also, as you are aware, the distortion of Darwin's theory into 'survival
of the fittest' (a phrase Darwin avoided), can lead to fascism when
applied badly to human physicality and culture.
To take the example of theft: In animal terms, a predator who chases
away weaker predators from their kill has an advantage over the weaker
predator - it doesn't need to risk injury, or develop the skills to
catch the prey, and thus might be more likely to survive to have
offspring than the weaker predator.
It wouldn't be the same in human society, because human society has laws
and punishments. A thief is less likely - other things being equal- to
reproduce than a non-thief, because of his increased risk of death,
injury or imprisonment.
Of course, this is a simplistic example - other forces are at work in
both situations.
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