> ;-) You are exempt, Doug. And Dwayne is a perennial relief. But I dare
> say the seriousness is a positive thing... it points to the fact that
> vocal members of the list have a fair bit of expertise in the matters
> under debate. In matters of politics, economics, and sociology I cannot
> pretend to keep up with the level of discussion... though that has not
> prevented me, as the archives will attest, from throwing in my opinion
> (the list's only weakness seems to be biology and evolutionary theory,
> debates on which are maddeningly repetitive and regressive, and I am
> afraid often ill-informed IMO).
Hmm. For me, it's the other way round: the evolution threads are much more substantive than the threads that touch on sociological issues. When someone proposes or forwards a "just so" evolutionary psychology story, we nicely critique it, using the principles of evolutionary theory itself. In contrast, the threads on sociological topics tend to get stuck on common sense notions about individuality (e.g., the social movement threads from last summer on).
Miles