The author, Roy Baumeister, is behind the best-known research in willpower training/depletion - see http://jonathan.graehl.org/mitigating-ego-depletion and http://jonathan.graehl.org/evidence-that-self-control-can-be...
Is There Anything Good About Men?
121–130 of 237 posts
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
All heritable behaviors that lead to men or women not reproducing don't stay in a population very long. It's not so much slave to genes as it's a boundary condition. That doesn't take away from your daily experience as a human. You can still do whatever you want, day to day, year to year, not giving much thought of your genetic viability and still be a happy, healthy human being. Just because you know how a rainbow w…
>All heritable behaviors that lead to men or women not reproducing don't stay in a population very long I'm not sure about this. What I mean is that I can clearly see the logic here, but I'd love to see a discussion for instance on the continual existence of evolutionary destructive traits such as homosexuality, which by all accounts has not only been around for a great deal of human existence, but also other species…
> What I mean is that I can clearly see the logic here, but I'd love to see a discussion for instance on the continual existence of evolutionary destructive traits such as homosexuality, which by all accounts has not only been around for a great deal of human existence, but also other species.
It allows excess parents without having excess children. Assume your objective function is to pass along genetic material that is similar to your own. Depending on your resource constraints of your environment and how close your population is to its carrying capacity, it may be game-theoretically optimal to help raise your sibling's child, rather than produce your own. If your child lowers the resources available per child for all your immediate relatives, you would be better off trying to increase the survival rate of an existing closely-related child instead. Thus, a gene that occasionally produces non-breeders (especially if the chance is modulated by relevant environmental factors) will, when properly tuned, result in a larger number of successful children.
The bigger lesson is, look at the genetic distribution of the population, not necessarily the genetics of the individuals. Humans live in groups and interact with each other, so things that don't make sense for the individual can still work. As an analogy: doctors increase everyone's survival rate, so you want lots of doctors right? Well, no, then no one would make food and we would starve. But that doesn't mean doctors are bad, either. It means you want some percentage of the population to be doctors, and that percentage is neither 0% nor 100%.
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#123The problem with this essay is that is paints us as slaves to our genes. Since Dawkins became fashionable, it is now normal to portray human beings as nothing more than meat-based mechanisms for storing and transporting DNA. This idea is dangerously embedded in society now, and it risks creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of barbarism. What possible motivation does one have for behaving in a manner other than that of…
> The problem with this essay is that is paints us as slaves to our genes.
1. It doesn't. 2. What's wrong with the gene-centric view of human nature?
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you read the article? The author gives several examples that completely counter your underlying argument. It isn't about ability, it's about motivation.
Again, so if women lack those motivations, where did feminism come from?
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interestingly, the Mosuo have a different model of the family than most of the rest of humans. In Mosuo culture, men take care of their nieces and nephews, not their sons and daughters. (I had to look this up on Wikipedia to verify it, but I guess it was true based on your description of their sexual relationships - such an arrangement is not stable otherwise.) So, two points. One, this kind of culture is the excepti…
I think you're mistaken about the model of family that "most of the rest of humans" have. There is way more variation than arguments like this tend to give credit to. Traditional Hawaii, everyone your age is a sibling and everyone your parents' age is a parent. Other parts of traditional China, the family group you belong to depends on your father entirely. Your biological mother is not related to you, since her fath…
Interesting points. And I agree that the reduction in other systems of family are a result of military and economic power. But the article is proposing a theory for how the Western military and economic powers were able to outcompete the others - for how such an imbalance in military and economic power was able to develop. I agree that you can't point to everything and say "this is why," but I don't believe he has done that. He provided extensive arguments.
Masuo women may have sex with less partners, but has it been confirmed that they have less sex?
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
>All heritable behaviors that lead to men or women not reproducing don't stay in a population very long I'm not sure about this. What I mean is that I can clearly see the logic here, but I'd love to see a discussion for instance on the continual existence of evolutionary destructive traits such as homosexuality, which by all accounts has not only been around for a great deal of human existence, but also other species…
> What I mean is that I can clearly see the logic here, but I'd love to see a discussion for instance on the continual existence of evolutionary destructive traits such as homosexuality, which by all accounts has not only been around for a great deal of human existence, but also other species. It allows excess parents without having excess children. Assume your objective function is to pass along genetic material tha…
The classic example of improving survivability of close relatives is found in meerkats.
Upon sighting a bird of prey, a meerkat will stand bolt-upright and send out a warning call to other meerkats. The meerkat that does this has a demonstrably higher risk of being eaten, but in doing so improves the odds of survival for its close family.
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with this essay is that is paints us as slaves to our genes. Why would you say this essay "paints us as slaves to our genes?" I didn't read it that way at all. In fact there's so much content there to discuss that I think it's really unfair to make such an unrelated generalization about the whole thing. There is much discussion about evolutionary traits, for sure, but just because it's there as an explana…
It's amusing to live in a world where instinct in animals is readily accepted as heritable, and yet whether or not humans can inherit behaviors is hotly contested. Almost seems like another round of people looking to maintain the illusion that humans are separate from animals. What was the last one we had, tool use?
Statements based on ambiguity.
Separate in what way from animals?
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#128Very nice article. It is centred about observing the past. But as evolution is going on, things change and I think that we are living in an era where things are changing and society will less favour the capability to compete but more to cope together. Think about the globalization, about global political institutions like UN, IWF, etc. Think about the fact that mankind is reaching limits of resources - oil, water, soil. I tend to think that these changes will actually change the roles and favour women, because it will be more important to share equally - that's just my personal opinion and I am actually in favour for it. I think we had enough wars and at least on this planet there is not that much territory to be conquered.
What do you think?
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is profoundly naive. Consider, for a moment, that a woman may not want to be a mother, or more realistically, that's not all she wants to be. Many Asian cultures are notoriously sexist. And, no, I wouldn't say being a mother is glamorous in those cultures... being a mother is expected and a woman is honored, briefly, when she fulfills those expectations, but it's not glamorous. Society's expectation, even Wester…
> Consider, for a moment, that a woman may not want to be a mother Then she is not likely to get the same respect as a woman who does want to be a mother. Respect for women who want to be mothers, and not respecting women who do not want to be mothers, is something that naturally evolves in a culture that values its population. This is because women who have genes and/or memes that cause them to have more children wi…
> You say this as if being sexist is a bad thing
If you know how to read English, yes, it's a bad thing. In the modern definition, the connotation of the word implies over-generalization. i.e. it's not rational behavior. No one interprets it otherwise unless you're trying to score points.
> The problem happens when women are judged by what men are supposed to do, or when men are judged by what women are supposed to do.
Somehow we know women are "supposed to" demote the rest of their aspirations and nurture a child all the way to adulthood because they breastfeed a child until it's 2, but a father can pursue his dreams because he need not be around after depositing a sperm donation.
> No, it simply stands to reason. You cannot subjugate the females in society, generation after generation, and expect it to survive.
Around we go... You'll have to define "reason" for me, because I usually think of it as taking into account existing evidence, including reading about women's experiences in such societies, before drawing such conclusions, but, to each his own. There is such a thing as a sustainable society that never reaches it's full potential...
> All parents, mothers and fathers, want their children to accomplish what they could not.
I worded this badly. Most parents want their children to be successful. This does not imply that the children should exist as proxies for them -- as complete representations of their self-worth. Again, I suppose it's sustainable culturally, although I'm not sure how it's supposed to be non-miserable. :-)
Re: Is There Anything Good About Men?
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
The British are given too much credit for things they never did. As for doing good in India, even under the Mughal empire, India is estimated to have a share of 30% of world GDP until the 18th century. When the British left in 1947, that share was less than 1%. The Brits de-industrialized India, used Indian raw materials and taxes to fuel their own industrial revolution and used India as a captive market to hawk thei…
>As for doing good in India, even under the Mughal empire, India is estimated to have a share of 30% of world GDP until the 18th century. Wiki doesn't agree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj#Technological_and_e... >India's per capita GDP decreased from $550 in 1700 to $520 by 1857, although it had increased to $618 by 1947 I'm not sure whose dollars those are... but it certainly doesn't sound like the Mughal…
Ability to organize isn't really an indicator of the good or harm you do.
Do you know what another regime is that had a legendary ability to organize? NAZI GERMANY.