jsabotta didn’t make claims about whether a scientific explanation of parental love exists; he stated, correctly I think, that your beliefs about the existence of such an explanation have no bearing on whether or not you deny Martine Rothblatt’s founding of United Therapeutics to seek a cure for her daughter’s pulmonary hypertension.
“You’re also denying Martine Rothblatt’s founding of United Therapeutics to seek a cure for her daughter’s pulmonary hypertension.”
I’m not sure what Eliezer means by this statement. Is he talking about denying that Martine Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics? Is he talking about denying that she founded it to seek a cure for her daughter’s pulmonary hypertension? I think that there must be some other interpretation because I don’t see how denying either of those things would result from denying that science can explain parental love.
bigjeff, I don’t see how you can claim that love “is one of the reasons humans are arguably the most successful creatures on the planet in terms of survival,” if “Nearly every mammal exhibits similar behavior.” How can our position as the “most” successful species be a result of a characteristic that we share with so many other animals? The reason we are most successful needs to be something that distinguishes us from all other species, our intelligence, for instance.
jsabotta didn’t make claims about whether a scientific explanation of parental love exists; he stated, correctly I think, that your beliefs about the existence of such an explanation have no bearing on whether or not you deny Martine Rothblatt’s founding of United Therapeutics to seek a cure for her daughter’s pulmonary hypertension.
“You’re also denying Martine Rothblatt’s founding of United Therapeutics to seek a cure for her daughter’s pulmonary hypertension.” I’m not sure what Eliezer means by this statement. Is he talking about denying that Martine Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics? Is he talking about denying that she founded it to seek a cure for her daughter’s pulmonary hypertension? I think that there must be some other interpretation because I don’t see how denying either of those things would result from denying that science can explain parental love.
bigjeff, I don’t see how you can claim that love “is one of the reasons humans are arguably the most successful creatures on the planet in terms of survival,” if “Nearly every mammal exhibits similar behavior.” How can our position as the “most” successful species be a result of a characteristic that we share with so many other animals? The reason we are most successful needs to be something that distinguishes us from all other species, our intelligence, for instance.