[lit-ideas] Re: Aesthetics and Evolution/Denis Dutton RIP
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 19:33:08 +0000 (GMT)
--- On Sun, 2/1/11, David Savory <dsavory@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>I think I have a better understanding of my own objection to Denis' theory:
>he's only being a little bit of a scientist.It's all very well to say "Well,
>this trait has persevered therefore it confers some survival value" but then
>you totally stop being a scientist and you begin telling non-falsifiable
>just-so stories.>
For those interested there is material on Denis' theory, easily googled,
including:-
http://boingboing.net/2010/11/23/denis-dutton-a-darwi.html
Without referencing the specifics of Dutton's or anyone else's theory (which
may or may not rest on the claim) the claim that a trait that has "persevered"
or survived "therefore...confers some survival value" itself needs very careful
unpacking if it is to amount to more than a non-explanatory or
pseudo-explanatory 'tautology', or even something testable but false. The
"trait" of committing suicide has "persevered" in the human species, for
example, yet in what (Darwinian) sense does it confer some survival value? It
is compatible with Darwinism that adaptions/adaptive traits may "persevere" or
survive even if they are "poor" from the POV of ensuring survival, at least
until they prove so "poor" that they are eliminated - and so
dispositions/traits may "persevere" that are more conducive to death than
survival. "Poor" adaptions may even outlast seemingly better adaptions, such
are the contingencies of evolutionary history.
Donal
Where the river is not dry yet
But it's getting there
London
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