I think your conclusion is largely correct, but I see a lot of overconfidence here, particularly in the evolutionary psych section. The selish gene theory was a good one, but wrong (see epigenetics).
The bacterial flagellum looks like a good candidate for an intelligently designed structure.
Many [non-biologist] researchers think Intelligent Design has explanatory value.
Many [non-biologist] researchers suggest Intelligent Design is scientifically useful.
Our brains may have been intelligently designed to...
but we may not have been designed to...
Evolutionary psychology isn’t as catastrophically implausible as ID; hence the bit about parody. The point is that merely using qualified language is no guarantee against overconfidence.
merely using qualified language is no guarantee against overconfidence
No, but qualified language by itself is no basis for an accusation of overconfidence, if it is not accompanied by overconfident probabilities. The ‘qualified language’ is the only indication I see in the text of degree of confidence, and it indicates a general lack of confidence, and so I don’t see on what basis [EDIT:] neq1 is [/EDIT] making the accusation.
I’m actually not making an accusation of overconfidence; just pointing out that using qualified language doesn’t protect against it. I would prefer language that gives (or at least suggests) probability estimates or degrees of confidence, rather than phrases like “looks like” or “many suggest”.
ID theorists are more likely than evolutionary biologists to use phrases like “looks like” or “many suggest” to defend their ideas, because those phrases hide the actual likelihood of ID. When I find myself thinking, “it could be that X,” instead of “because of A and B, X is likely,” I suspect myself of being overconfident, and I apply the same heuristic to statements from other people.
The selish gene theory was a good one, but wrong (see epigenetics).
I understand ‘the selfish gene theory’ to be the idea that we should expect to see genes whose ‘effects’ are such as to cause their own replication to be maximized, as opposed to promoting the survival/reproduction of the individual, group or species, whenever these goals differ.
This is almost a tautology, modulo the tricky business of defining the ‘effects’ of a particular gene.
I don’t see how the existence of epigenetic inheritance has anything to do with it, especially as the selfish gene theory doesn’t depend on genes being made of DNA, only that whatever they are, genes can preserve information indefinitely.
Genes just aren’t as much of the story as we thought they were. Whether or not a gene increases fitness might depend on whether it is methylated or not, for example. Until recently, we didn’t realize that there could be transgenerational transmittance of DNA methylation patterns due to environmental factors.
I think your conclusion is largely correct, but I see a lot of overconfidence here, particularly in the evolutionary psych section. The selish gene theory was a good one, but wrong (see epigenetics).
Overconfident? Really?
″...looks like a good candidate for an evolved intuition”
“Many researchers think...”
“Many researchers suggest...”
“Our brains may have evolved...”
“but we may not have evolved...”
″...it seems unlikely that...”
And of course I haven’t defended selfish gene theory.
An exercise in parody:
The bacterial flagellum looks like a good candidate for an intelligently designed structure.
Many [non-biologist] researchers think Intelligent Design has explanatory value.
Many [non-biologist] researchers suggest Intelligent Design is scientifically useful.
Our brains may have been intelligently designed to...
but we may not have been designed to...
Evolutionary psychology isn’t as catastrophically implausible as ID; hence the bit about parody. The point is that merely using qualified language is no guarantee against overconfidence.
No, but qualified language by itself is no basis for an accusation of overconfidence, if it is not accompanied by overconfident probabilities. The ‘qualified language’ is the only indication I see in the text of degree of confidence, and it indicates a general lack of confidence, and so I don’t see on what basis [EDIT:] neq1 is [/EDIT] making the accusation.
I’m actually not making an accusation of overconfidence; just pointing out that using qualified language doesn’t protect against it. I would prefer language that gives (or at least suggests) probability estimates or degrees of confidence, rather than phrases like “looks like” or “many suggest”.
ID theorists are more likely than evolutionary biologists to use phrases like “looks like” or “many suggest” to defend their ideas, because those phrases hide the actual likelihood of ID. When I find myself thinking, “it could be that X,” instead of “because of A and B, X is likely,” I suspect myself of being overconfident, and I apply the same heuristic to statements from other people.
Sorry, “you’re” above refers to its great-grandparent. Will edit.
I understand ‘the selfish gene theory’ to be the idea that we should expect to see genes whose ‘effects’ are such as to cause their own replication to be maximized, as opposed to promoting the survival/reproduction of the individual, group or species, whenever these goals differ.
This is almost a tautology, modulo the tricky business of defining the ‘effects’ of a particular gene.
I don’t see how the existence of epigenetic inheritance has anything to do with it, especially as the selfish gene theory doesn’t depend on genes being made of DNA, only that whatever they are, genes can preserve information indefinitely.
Genes just aren’t as much of the story as we thought they were. Whether or not a gene increases fitness might depend on whether it is methylated or not, for example. Until recently, we didn’t realize that there could be transgenerational transmittance of DNA methylation patterns due to environmental factors.