Saturday, September 30, 2017

Evolution or Evolutions? The "Natural" mist!

In a well written article called "The Rise and Fall of Sociobiology" by Peter Augustine Lawler, there is stated the conflict between two extreme views, Social Constructionism and Sociobiology, as follows:
"Social constructionism is the belief that human nature does not matter or exist, and that most of what we believe about human nature is actually the product of human institutions and cultures, and therefore open to be changed. Sociobiology is the belief that human beings have real natures and natural purposes, but natures and purposes that are fully intelligible through evolution and not really different from those of the other animals." in The Rise and Fall of Sociobiology by Peter Augustine Lawler
Nowadays we live the victory of Social Constructionism with the concept of Diversity as its cornerstone. While Sociobiology saw that Diversity as Biological Inequality, Social Constructionism due to social discomfort and lack of any technical solution made the idea of Biological Diversity mainstream, proof that reality is just too much to Humanity deal with it as it is. Amazingly no one argues about Economical Inequality, if someone had the idea of labeling it Economical Diversity it would be immediately called cynical.

Sadly the delusion is much more deep than "Biological Diversity". There is the big "Natural" mist! If the first delusion has a deadline called Biotechnology the second has not. Natural is that big carpet that you can sweep everything under it. This mist started with the ubiquitous and inflated name "Natural" Selection. If Natural nothing else can escape it. That's why Evolution is seen as something singular, simple because under "Nature" there must be only one evolution. And so, Sexual Selection is lost under this "Natural" umbrella, and naturally, Natural Evolution is all there is.

The puzzling respected book The Selfish Gene is a prime example of this "Natural" mist:
"This is an extremely difficult question (Sexual Selection) for the evolutionist to answer. Most serious attempts to answer in evolve sophisticated mathematical reasoning. I am frankly going to evade it except to say one thing. Whether or not it benefits all the rest of an individual's genes is comparatively irrelevant. Seen from the selfish gene's point of view (Natural Selection), sex is not so bizarre after all." in The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
The previous quote shows clearly this sweeping under the "Natural" carpet! Same happens with the so called Human "Nature". Again, is everything and nothing at the same time, the Mist that feeds the "Natural" and ancestral mysticism...

Reality as People like and are able to see it!

Natural Selection is clearly an overstatement for what really is. What it really is is Environmental Selection. But:
"But like all popularized science, these big pictures gain clarity by distorting reality." in The Rise and Fall of Sociobiology by Peter Augustine Lawler
Yes, Natural Selection is that big picture that distorts what in reality is, Environmental Selection. The advantage of naming things by what they really are is simple, they give space for other things that go behind. Evolution is another "big picture" derived from naming Environmental Evolution as Natural. because Nature is everything and naturally Evolution is just one. No space for other Evolution like the one promoted by Sexual Selection. Reality is more complex than this "Natural" absolutism, Reality is like this:

  • Environmental Selection:
    • Individuals best adapted to their environments are more likely to survive and reproduce.
  • Sexual Selection:
    • Selection of individuals most similar to the uniform Sexual characteristics of their Species.
Calling Environmental Selection "Natural" has the perverse effect of distorting and neglecting Sexual Selection as a simple branch from the big "Natural" one, like this:
  • Sexual selection is a "special case" of natural selection.
  • Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection where members of (...)
  • Sexual selection is natural selection arising through preference by one sex for certain characteristics in individuals of the other sex.
Clearing the mist means that Sexual Selection isn't "Natural" Selection, quite the oppose it, where "Natural" Selection is a delusion in the sense that "Natural" is everything there is (absolutism), what it really exists is Environmental Selection and Sexual Selection an they are two different things. Clearing the mist is also recognize that there isn't THE ubiquitous Evolution, there are two Evolutions, the Sexual and Environmental ones! Avoiding these concepts just because they are too clumsy or too baffling is no different from a church avoiding the idea of Sun in the center just because. Only reality should determine how thing are described. Languages are contaminated with ideology where "Natural" is one of their mists...
Naturally voting Left is voting Right!
Sexual Mysticism 101