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They exhibit behaviours that seem to defy alternative explanations, though I doubt anyone could say for certain whether they do or don’t
by stackghost 12d ago
They exhibit behaviours that seem to defy alternative explanations, though I doubt anyone could say for certain whether they do or don’t
- card_zero 12d agoYou could have an alternative explanation: large animals invest lots of food energy in their offspring, and so the slimmest chance that a calf might not be dead is worth lots of effort. Say one in a thousand actually revive. Here's an article about orcas: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64559047 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64559047 It seems that an orca invests so much in a son that it's like an all-or-nothing one way ticket to pass her genes on. (She might get second try later, but the probability is much lower.)
- pastel8739 12d agoYou might also argue that although there may be a non-emotional argument for why grieving could be beneficial, it’s possible or even likely that evolution encoded this instinct in something like emotions. Just how evolution encoded the tendency to care for one’s family and community in emotions for humans.
- card_zero 12d agoYes! Which leads into strange territory, because we can say that attachment is not entirely rational, but is influenced by genes pointing us toward more successful reproduction, without concern for creating knowledge. But then this environment of instincts is the environment we've built up all our cultural store of meaning in, it's the human condition, so the argument can be turned around to say that meaning isn't entirely rational. So even gene-driven attachment isn't meaningless, but at the same time, I don't want to be bullied and herded around emotionally by little nucleic acid spirals just so they can replicate themselves.
- jibal 12d ago> They exhibit behaviours that seem to defy alternative explanations No, they really don't. The article says > indicated an inherent, strong maternal attachment to the calf Yeah, that's not grieving.
- stackghost 12d agoWhat if I told you that marine biology is a large and rigorous field that is not fully encapsulated by TFA?
- jibal 12d ago[flagged]
- madaxe_again 12d agoIndeed. The same goes for widows at funerals. I mean, has anyone ever dissected the brain of a grieving human and said “aha hah! Here it is!! The grief!”
- card_zero 12d agoNo, of course I haven't been doing that, and it's going to be a while before I would have collected a representative sample anyway, if I had been.