Why I Hate the Word "Nature"

http://twitter.com/#!/ContraPoints

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Tags:

• genetics
• nature
• nurture
• psychology
• philosophy
• mythology
• Hegel
• Roland
• Barthes
• darwin
• evolution
• evolutionary
• Debate
• Word

[Sarahon06]

Do you have any idea what the symbol on the cover of that book is?

[ContraPoints]

@Sarahon06 I have no idea. I assumed it was made up.

[WorthlessLoser8]

@burnthesystem11

HMM!!! :) Much more to learn.

[burnthesystem11]

@deinarts No he criticizes early psychology, specifically psychoanalysis for not being falsifiable. Maybe your claim is right I have never heard that from Popper. Psychology answers "how" questions and EP attempts "why" questions. That is why he is questioning EP.

[burnthesystem11]

@WorthlessLoser8 This is the standard defense right here, "well you don't really understand adaptive mechanism". Actually the modules hypothesized by EP are neither specific nor encapsulated. The brain is not encapsulated. Encapsulated modules let very little info in or out. This concept would require localization in a strong sense and this is not supported by an research anywhere. The brain does not work like that. Nothing to specific about the behaviors you list either.

[WorthlessLoser8]

Everything IS natural. What isn't? The supernatural?

Evolutionary psychology accounts for fairly specific things. That step parents are dangerous for kids, that men will tend to favor promiscuity sexually. You seem to not get what evolutionary psychology is about, what have you read on the matter?

[OrgasmandTea]

So this argument is a semantic one? Human language is imperfect and all attempts to use it scientifically should state terms and conditions to eliminate confusion, surely that's the end of the argument?

[TheWayshowerTube]

I dislike the word hate, because the user of the word is causing a new pattern of conditioning characterized as potential frailness, corruptibility and subjectivity. I dislike hating naturalness, I'd rather disvalue naturalness to be used as a vocabular principle.

[EyeLean5280]

One use of the word nature I do like is the phrase "natural rights." And I will admit that I like very much the ideology that flows from it. I find it very congenial to argue that we are possessed of certain rights that are inherent, not conferred by God or subject to the whims of society.

[SgtDICTION]

I feel you.  Every time I read something that makes a claim about "the nautre of things" I find myself cringing. It has to be the number one assumption red flag.

[deinarts]

About your dislike of evolutionary psychology -- if you haven't, you should see Sir Karl Popper's "Science as Falsification." He criticizes psychology as a science for its lack of predictive power (which seems to be your problem with evolutionary psychology) and also for its lack of falsifiability.

[jarredf30]

@tlaniganschmidt I wasn't saying that peacocks don't have some rudimentary form of awareness or conscioussness at least.I was just saying that the physiological processes do work like a machine and these are inherited.I doubt the peahen 'knows' that the tail signals good genes,she just sees beauty and reacts accordingly. They don't know in the scientific sense and that is not needed.The mechanics are the backbone of these behaviors.However I agree with your point though.