On Common Sense, was Re: Only one sex?

[Carrol Cox]

"Only sound common sense, respectable fellow that he is, in the homely
realm of our own four walls, has very wonderful adventures directly he
ventures out into the wide world of research. And the metaphysical mode
of thought, justifiable and necessary as it is in a number of domains
whose
extent varies according to the nature of the particular object of
investigation,
sooner or later reaches a limit, beyond which it becomes one-sided,
restricted, abstract, lost in insoluable contradictions. In the
contemplation
of individual things, it forgets the the connection between them; in the

contemplation of their existence, it forgets the beginning and end of
that
existence; of their repose, it forgets their motion. It cannot see the
wood
for the trees. For everyday purposes we know and can say, e.g., whether
an animal is alive or not [Cox: "or whether X is a male or not"]. But,
upon
closer inquiry, we find that this is, in many cases, a very complex
question, as the jurists know very well."

            F. Engels, *Anti-Duhring* (Moscowm 1969, p. 32)

Incidentally, the biologist who invented that silly phrase "selfish
gene,"
does have one interesting observation: Our confidence that we know
what a human being (or a chimpanzee) is depends on the extermination
of all the closely related species of the past. It would become very
confusing were all the homo species still extant.

Carrol