>>> Miles Jackson >
andie nachgeborene
> Our biology gives us certain dispositions that can be manifested in
> different ways in different circumstances. We can be competitive
> under capitalism, deferential under feudalism, maybe cooperative
> under communism.
This is granting too much priority to biology. It is not accurate to state that a biological substrate creates dispositions; rather, social
relations and biological features are mutually determinative. For instance, brain development shapes and is shaped by social interactions
in early childhood. I know that andie has made this very point in LBO
posts in the past, but the phrasing above could be easily misconstrued
as the claim that biology is the precedent.
A minor point, perhaps, but I take every opportunity to undermine the pernicious and misleading notion that there is some biological substrate modified by a sociocultural veneer.
Miles ___________________________________
CB: This is true. True with respect to the characteristics that Andie lists which are all social relations: competitive ( with other _people_, so social) , deferential ( or dominant with respect to other people), cooperative ( with other people; notice there are cooperative relationships in capitalism and feudalism too).
Biology _is_ determinative with respect to the physiological fundamentals of eating, sleeping, breathing, and reproduction. They are not biologically and socially co-determinative. They are only biologically determined. All societies must meet these biological minimums in order to do all the other stuff that they do. If people don't get enough to eat, they won't be competitive, cooperative or deferential/dominant , nor will their brains function at all. They will be extinct.
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