Post by Hansen Young on Jul 13, 2015 1:55:50 GMT
1. Why is the theory of evolution so important in understanding how human beings behave?
Evolution is is a process that is happening around us constantly. The theory of evolution is very important in understanding human behavior because it allows us to compare what we are now with what we used to be, as well as where we came from. By back-tracing the steps in our evolution from our ancestors, we can consider how environmental pressures and other factors present during their lifetimes could have shaped their behaviors. This in turn allows us to seek semblances of those behaviors in our selves. There are many common examples we can use that serve as evidence of our evolutionary past, such as the fight-or-flight response that still occurs during negative situations, hiccups being a vestigial activity left over from our amphibious ancestors, to phobias of things such as heights, spiders, and snakes.
We can also highlight how biology is one of the cornerstones related to all other areas of science, as stated in week 3's required reading. Theodosius Dobzhansky's essay titled Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution seems to aptly sum up exactly how important evolution is to biology. Therefore, we can infer that something so important to biology must be important to many other sciences as well. The theory of evolution serves as the foundation for biology, which in turn serves as a foundation for many other sciences such as philosophy and psychology that also better allow for understanding of human behavior.
2. Which questions do you think evolutionary theory cannot answer?
I don't think that current knowledge paired with evolutionary theory can explain the emergent property of self-consciousness awareness at this point in time. The religious might point to something such as a divine soul, but at the moment science doesn't have a concrete answer for why our brains, being the flesh and neurons that they are, allow us the degree of intelligence and awareness that they do. It doesn't help that we couldn't be around to observe the slow process by which our genus Homo ancestors progressed from primitive to intelligent behavior. It also doesn't help that mankind currently deems itself the only self-aware animal on the planet (I'd argue that studies with whales, dolphins and elephants would prove otherwise). We as a species currently just aren't scientifically advanced enough to definitively explain consciousness, and probably might not ever be, if things such as taboos against research using human specimens continues. Maybe if we achieve artificial intelligence in the future we might be able to use it as an analogue to gain more insight into the development of our species' own intelligence.
Evolution is is a process that is happening around us constantly. The theory of evolution is very important in understanding human behavior because it allows us to compare what we are now with what we used to be, as well as where we came from. By back-tracing the steps in our evolution from our ancestors, we can consider how environmental pressures and other factors present during their lifetimes could have shaped their behaviors. This in turn allows us to seek semblances of those behaviors in our selves. There are many common examples we can use that serve as evidence of our evolutionary past, such as the fight-or-flight response that still occurs during negative situations, hiccups being a vestigial activity left over from our amphibious ancestors, to phobias of things such as heights, spiders, and snakes.
We can also highlight how biology is one of the cornerstones related to all other areas of science, as stated in week 3's required reading. Theodosius Dobzhansky's essay titled Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution seems to aptly sum up exactly how important evolution is to biology. Therefore, we can infer that something so important to biology must be important to many other sciences as well. The theory of evolution serves as the foundation for biology, which in turn serves as a foundation for many other sciences such as philosophy and psychology that also better allow for understanding of human behavior.
2. Which questions do you think evolutionary theory cannot answer?
I don't think that current knowledge paired with evolutionary theory can explain the emergent property of self-consciousness awareness at this point in time. The religious might point to something such as a divine soul, but at the moment science doesn't have a concrete answer for why our brains, being the flesh and neurons that they are, allow us the degree of intelligence and awareness that they do. It doesn't help that we couldn't be around to observe the slow process by which our genus Homo ancestors progressed from primitive to intelligent behavior. It also doesn't help that mankind currently deems itself the only self-aware animal on the planet (I'd argue that studies with whales, dolphins and elephants would prove otherwise). We as a species currently just aren't scientifically advanced enough to definitively explain consciousness, and probably might not ever be, if things such as taboos against research using human specimens continues. Maybe if we achieve artificial intelligence in the future we might be able to use it as an analogue to gain more insight into the development of our species' own intelligence.