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Since biologists and evolutionists are liken to gather here, I would like to ask something that's been occurring to me lately: does evolution explain all the th

Since biologists and evolutionists are liken to gather here, I would like to ask something that's been occurring to me lately: does evolution explain all the things? For example, does it explain my personal musical taste? Or perhaps the aesthetic tastes of those birds that mate based on aesthetic choices? If evolution doesn't explain these and other factors that are involved in natural selection, so we can say that external factors (explained by what?) are involved in the process of evolution, so evolution may be being partially caused by other, non-emergent, forces? I don't know if this is clear or if it makes sense. Please feel free to say I'm stupid.

cttet 9y ago
I am not an evolutionist or biologist to answer the first part, but when a theory(model) cannot explain some phenomenon does not imply external factor. It could also possible be caused by randomness.
Elrac 9y ago
Sort of. Here's a sloppy analogy off the top of my head: Evolution explains your musical taste in the same way that gravity explains why much of the rainfall on the Alps ends up in Lake Constance. It's not a detailed, step-by-step explanation, but it's an explanation at the level of "duh, what else could it be?" Evolution, on a pretty fundamental level, is the reason for every last difference in behavior (down to the chemical level) between a bacterium and you, and no serious biologist doubts this. Now, evolution is not an isolated process; it's exactly the connection between real-world "external factors" as you say and the survival (or not) of our ancestors. So sure, parts of your genome may have been shaped by the climate in Ethopia or the prevalence of mammoths in Siberia. All those stories are _part_ of "evolution." I'm not a biologist but I can speculate on what one might say about your musical tastes: Humans and other mammals enjoy rhythms of certain frequencies, maybe because those are what you hear as a child nestled against your parent's chest. Hearing that kind of noise usually meant you were safe. Music in general is enjoyed as a form of social communication (which is a vital to human survival), roughly along the same lines that howling together strengthens the unity of a wolf pack. Beyond that, your individual music tastes, i.e. the tempi, rhythms, tones and harmonies you like, are most likely learned behaviors (and that's why they're often not inherited), influenced by what you heard a lot of in a certain age range. On the other hand, the learning capability itself, your acquisition of your surrounding culture and its musical features, is almost certainly another survival-enhancing evolved skill.

cttet 9y ago

I am not an evolutionist or biologist to answer the first part, but when a theory(model) cannot explain some phenomenon does not imply external factor. It could also possible be caused by randomness.

Elrac 9y ago

Sort of. Here's a sloppy analogy off the top of my head: Evolution explains your musical taste in the same way that gravity explains why much of the rainfall on the Alps ends up in Lake Constance. It's not a detailed, step-by-step explanation, but it's an explanation at the level of "duh, what else could it be?" Evolution, on a pretty fundamental level, is the reason for every last difference in behavior (down to the chemical level) between a bacterium and you, and no serious biologist doubts this. Now, evolution is not an isolated process; it's exactly the connection between real-world "external factors" as you say and the survival (or not) of our ancestors. So sure, parts of your genome may have been shaped by the climate in Ethopia or the prevalence of mammoths in Siberia. All those stories are _part_ of "evolution." I'm not a biologist but I can speculate on what one might say about your musical tastes: Humans and other mammals enjoy rhythms of certain frequencies, maybe because those are what you hear as a child nestled against your parent's chest. Hearing that kind of noise usually meant you were safe. Music in general is enjoyed as a form of social communication (which is a vital to human survival), roughly along the same lines that howling together strengthens the unity of a wolf pack. Beyond that, your individual music tastes, i.e. the tempi, rhythms, tones and harmonies you like, are most likely learned behaviors (and that's why they're often not inherited), influenced by what you heard a lot of in a certain age range. On the other hand, the learning capability itself, your acquisition of your surrounding culture and its musical features, is almost certainly another survival-enhancing evolved skill.