[lbo-talk] Altruism & Evolution?

[Charles Brown]

I gotta spank Luke on this one: this is naive sociobiology.  Not even Darwin
argues that all traits in a species are inevitably the result of natural
selection!  Check out Gould's spandrel analogy (discussed at some length in
The Structure of Evolutionary Theory).  It is absolutely incorrect to assume
that all behaviors observed in
humans today must have occasionally contributed to reproductive
success at some point in human history. (To be a little
snarky, only someone who doesn't understand Darwin's
concept of evolution would make Luke's claim above.)

Miles

^^^^^

CB: OK. However, Gould is still talking about genetically based behaviors,
but just saying that some genotypes arise not through natural selection. I
believe you want to go further than what you say above and say that much
(most) human behavior is culturally based and not biologically based at all,
don't you ?

Radical anti-essentialism is the idea that _no_ human behavior is
biologically/genetically based. It is based on the kernel truth that "most"
human behavior is not biologically, but culturally, based.