I beg to disagree. Most of the critique of what you so dismissively (after Buller) denote "pop EP" is politically motivated, and although Buller's article in SciAm is written in a reasonable tone, I suspect he is no exception. Furthermore, and unlike Diamond or Wilson, he is not a reputable evolutionary biologist, actually, not a scientist at all, rather a philosopher, even if well versed in biology (for a philosopher). There is much that is wrong with creating just-so stories but people like Diamond and Pinker are actually not big offenders in that area, they realize (perhaps, not to a sufficient extent but they do) that not everything in evolution is adaptive. Actually, my impression is that it is Buller who comes up with various just so stories of his own because he does not like those of others. BTW, I am not hopping on any wagons.
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Date: 2009-01-06 10:38 pm (UTC)There is much that is wrong with creating just-so stories but people like Diamond and Pinker are actually not big offenders in that area, they realize (perhaps, not to a sufficient extent but they do) that not everything in evolution is adaptive. Actually, my impression is that it is Buller who comes up with various just so stories of his own because he does not like those of others.
BTW, I am not hopping on any wagons.