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C00002 00002	6 I don't see that natural selection precludes random mating.  Selective
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6 I don't see that natural selection precludes random mating.  Selective
mating is just an improved method of regulating mating in that it
makes evolution work better.  Fish seem mate at random.

7 The question of what will evolve can be treated.  Can we look at a
species and say "This widespread species is perishing.  If it only
evolved the following simple modification of physiology or behavior
that many other species have done, it would survive".  Observing a
clear cut case of that would confirm the idea that variation (presumably
by mutation) is a rare event.  Of course, behaviors and structures
that ancestors of the species found useful are usually around in
latent form and can be re-evolved relatively quickly.  Recent
work in the genetics of yeasts shows this clearly.

17 The model of behavior that is learned in fewer and fewer trials
until it eventually requires no trials seems very dubious.

18 That an innate behavior would transform back to a learned behavior
simply for reasons of economy seems dubious - unless it had previously
gone the other way and simply drifted back.  The energy economy of
relying on environmental stimuli to evoke the behavior seems nonexistent.

19 "genetically more economical" dubious

20 Animals learn to recognize particular conspecifics, e.g. offspring,
but their behavior triggered by the recognition is usually standard.
Interesting if true.

Dawkins, R., The Selfish Gene, Oxford 1976
discusses memes

38 Don't identify the good with the natural.

38 Evolution says nothing about determinism one way or the other.

42 Metaphors are bad - especially those in The Selfish Gene.

43 Quote from Darwin "To study metaphysics [psychology] as they have
been studied appears to me like struggling at astronomy without
mechanics. - we must find some ⊗stabile foundation to argue from".
(notebook N, Barrett 1974.

44 it is a "professional malpractice of anthropologists to exaggerate
the exotic character of other cultures" - Maurice Bloch 1977

46 Emotions might be considered the genes' closest representatives
in the mental processes of learning and decision making: they constitute
evaluations of stimuli, whether these stimuli originate outside the
organism (sensation) or in the brain itself (memory, fantasy), and
motivate the seeking of particular stimuli.

My theory of the somewhat arbitrary character of human choice of goals
doesn't fit well with Symons's theories.

62 Huxley and Symons and I agree that morality can't be deduced from
nature and that the society in which we would like to live is more
like a garden than a woods.

64 "To paraphrase Bloch, social science theory may be an amalgam of
efforts to know the world and efforts to hide it".

64 "The second reason I raise this issue is that I believe the assumption
of a self-interested human nature - whether or not this assumption
purports to be derived from evolutionary theory - can have socially
and politically desirable consequences". - So what?  This isn't an
argument in its favor.

65 "That men and women differ by nature has no necessary implications
whatsoever for normative questions: it is frequently the case that
individuals hold similar scientific views and opposed political views,
and vice versa".

94 "But the fact that bears sometimes ride unicycles and dolphins
never do is not evidence that unicycle riding was adaptive ..."

103 "In social science functionalism, the behavior of individuals is
thought to function to promote the welfare of a superindividual entity
or system with needs of its own.  This view has been remarkably unproductive
in the social sciences, and when applied to nonhuman primates it is
disastrous".

104 "'a pregnant female may induce a male to tolerate her subsequent
infant (not necessarily his) by soliciting this male in the months
before her infant is born'.  These suggestions are highly speculative
and rather Machiavellian, but cynicism may be a useful antidote to
current tendencies in primatology to explain non-reproductive sexuality
as functioning to cement social bonds and maintain troop cohesion.  The
ultimate goal for which selection mods behavior is reproductive success not,
as is so often implied in primatology, social integration."

My theory is that estrus was lost because it is not easily reconciled
with rationality and the ability to think ahead.  Consider a woman
faced with the idea that next week she will be in heat.  The strain
between her present goals and her predicted goals will be great.

149 discussion of aggression

	There may be a reproductive benefit in driving one's brothers or sons
to emigrate and spreading the genes to new niches.

182 "many young women 'girl watch' as much or more than they 'boy watch'".
Perhaps an interest in women's bodies has developed because of its
effect on men, and nature hasn't bothered to link it with the sex
of the subject.

186 It will interesting to see how attractiveness is an adaptation.
The arguments about the attractiveness of the correlates of youth
seem sound.

196 We should distinguish between admiring the norm of a one's racial
group and admiring the average of what is seen.  However, admiration
for hair color prefers extremes - not the average.
I.e. the preference is multi-modal.

197 Yes it is too farfetched to believe that people's preferences correspond
to trends like that to get taller.

201 Reason given for male conservative dress seems farfetched.

202 While women compete, it isn't for opportunities to copulate.  Right.

203 Holding health and social position constant, do beautiful women
have more children?  Grandchildren?  This should be easily checked by
comparing sisters.

The chapter on sexual choice isn't convincing.  Query.  How do Japanese
rank Western women?  Judging from Japanese billboards, their concept
of attractiveness in Western women agrees with American concepts.
The notions of feminine beauty may be partially derivative from notions
of beauty in general.  Do not beautiful dogs and horses and flowers
have something in common with beautiful women?

211 "One day the President and Mrs. Coolidge were visiting a government
farm.  Soon after their arrival they were taken off on separate tours.
When Mrs. Coolidge passed the chicken pens she paused to ask the man
in charge if the rooster copulates more than once each day.  "Dozens
of times" was the reply.  "Please tell that to the President", Mrs.
Coolidge requested.  When the President passed the pens and was told about
the rooster, he asked "Same hen every time?"  "Oh no, Mr. President,
a different one each time."  The President nodded slowly, then said
"Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge.""

228 "...I believe the study of human sexuality has been impeded by the
unquestioned, and perhaps unconscious, assumptions that cultural
determinism is morally superior to biological determinism and that
male sexuality is emotionally superior to female sexuality".

230 doubts validity of statements like "society A permits adultery,
while society B discourages it". no monolithic double standard

232 "... a woman's sexual desire for a man other than her husband results
largely from  a comparison of the potential partner and her husband..."

The argument that men's desire for variety is genetic seems convincing.

Although women enjoy sex, nevertheless it is a service that women
provide men.  Symons argues that this is clear from the ultimate
point of view since it improved a man's reproductivity, but the
present day proximate reasons are more problematical.

274 "Like Huxley's garden, which can be maintained only by counteracting
the cosmic processes of reproductive competition and natural selection,
the garden of human sexuality is likely to flourish to the extent that
we abandon our folk belief that there is wisdom in nature."

The discussion of rape seems somewhat inhibited by a desire to have
socially acceptable views.

285 He is right that it is wishful thinking to suppose that changes
in socialization will produce men whose attitude toward sex is just
the attitude women wish men had.