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Article 6096 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: carnes@sparky.eecs.umich.edu (Richard Carnes)
Subject: Re: AI failures
Message-ID: <1992Jun5.125036.25346@zip.eecs.umich.edu>
Sender: news@zip.eecs.umich.edu (Mr. News)
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor
References: <1992May29.002128.12705@zip.eecs.umich.edu> <621@trwacs.fp.trw.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1992 12:50:36 GMT

erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin) writes:

>You criticize "pop" sociobiology as dragging down the rest of the
>field, but my experience is that the Marxists are as concerned with
>the serious work as they are with the popularizers. [...]

The term "pop sociobiology", as coined by Kitcher, does not refer to
popularizing treatments of the subject.  What has dragged down the
genuine science of sociobiology is an understandable eagerness to
reach earthshaking conclusions about human nature, with the result
that the canons of sound methodology are set aside.  It is sloppy
methodology that puts the pop in pop sociobiology: it is generally
characterized by speculative adaptationism based on the assumption
that natural selection and evolution inevitably optimize.  For a good
example of a pop-sociobiological just-so story, see the account we may
entitle "How the Woman Got Her Orgasm" in W. Bernds and D. Barash,
"Early termination of parental investment in mammals, including
humans," in Chagnon and Irons, EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AND HUMAN SOCIAL
BEHAVIOR (1979), p. 500.

Richard Carnes


