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From: dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Paul DuBois)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: A Corollary
Message-ID: <1069@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-May-85 17:12:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1069
Posted: Mon May 13 17:12:15 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 16-May-85 03:51:52 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: UW-Madison Primate Center
Lines: 38


>> [Paul DuBois]
>> We say "Natural selection - Ah!  Now I understand."  But do we?  Of
>> course we don't.  What do you understand?  It's a buzzword that tells
>> us exactly nothing except that what happened, happened.  Now, surely we
>> could have deduced that without natural selection.  I'm not denying the
>> concept _per se_.  Of course selection occurs.  But the real question
>> is why one thing should be selected and not another.
>>
>> I don't get it.  You guys all KNOW this.  I'n not telling you one
>> single thing that you don't already know.  Yet this pretense of the
>> idea that natural selection means something or tells us something, is
>> maintained.  Why?  Why do you do it?

> [Mike Huybensz]
> Natural selection IS being intensively studied.  Studies of predation,
> parasitism, preferred foods and their nutritional values, quantitizing
> factors of reproductive success, and a host of other things illustrate
> the factors that compose and give direction to natural selection.

I am aware of that.

Some time back it was observed that "the number of arguments is
irrelevant unless some of them are correct." I would like to suggest a
corollary:  "The amount of research done is irrelevant unless some of
it produces a result."

It is perfectly possible that some of this large corpus of work to
which Mike refers means something.  As he has not shown what, however,
the vague assertion above means absolutely nothing to me.  Nor, I suppose,
does it mean anything to anyone who was not already convinced before it
was said.

-- 
                                                                    |
Paul DuBois     {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois        --+--
                                                                    |
In the human instantiation, the image is the substance.             |