Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Newsgroups: net.singles,net.social Subject: Re: Intelligence Message-ID: <1591@dciem.UUCP> Date: Sat, 22-Jun-85 15:37:33 EDT Article-I.D.: dciem.1591 Posted: Sat Jun 22 15:37:33 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 22-Jun-85 16:34:03 EDT References: <443@unc.UUCP> Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 33 Summary: >There appear to be a lot of amateur sociobiologists out there on the >net. I hope they realize that much of what they're saying is based on >certain half-respectable popularizations by people like Robert Ardrey >(sp?) and his ilk. Just because it's published in Psychology Today >don't make it so. > >If you want to talk sociobiology, go read E. O. Wilson's book by the >same title. But be sure and read the volumes of criticism that have >been leveled at his work and the work of other sociobiologists. > >To be specific: I challenge ANY of you to point to a study that's >linked a genetic component to ANY of the behavior you're talking >about. The early chapters of E. O. Wilson's "Sociobiology" say a lot An equally valid comment might be: I challenge ANY of you to point to a study that shows ANY of the behaviour you're talking about NOT to have a genetic component. It's silly to claim that a particular behaviour has no genetic component, since the behaviour depends utterly on the fact that one is a human and not a fish. Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, and more particularly The Extended Phenotype) deals very well with the question of genetic/environmental interaction in behaviour. Even in bacteria, very little behaviour is genetically dictated; it all depends on environmental modification. We are what we have evolved to be, and that includes our patterns of behaviour as well as our skin colour. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt