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The article seems to skip between "X therefore Y" and "Y ... Z!!" with little more than conjecture at times. We try to minimize baby-making but we’re still hig
by corin_ 14y ago
The article seems to skip between "X therefore Y" and "Y ... Z!!" with little more than conjecture at times.
We try to minimize baby-making but we’re still highly interested in sex, and so for humans sex obviously serves another extremely compelling purpose.
That purpose is to bring us closer, to cement social bonds.
Without arguing which is the correct reason, surely an alternate explanation could be "That purpose is to cause our bodies pleasure".
- simonh 14y agoPleasure is just the carrot evolution uses to make you do what benefits your genes. Pleasure in itself is not a end evolution optimises for.
- corin_ 14y agoObviously true, but not relevant to what he wrote. When saying "that purpose is" did he mean from a point of why did we evolve like this, or did he mean why do we individuals act like this? If the latter, pleasure is a valid reason. If the former, surely evolution made it pleasurable because it helped create offspring. (Also: the fact that pleasure is there doesn't automatically mean it evolved for genetic benefits. Why do people get pleasure out of class A drugs?)
- simonh 14y agoSorry, you've read the article and you're genuinely not sure whether he's talking about behavioural evolution?
- corin_ 14y agoAs I commented, surely the reason we have evolved to find sex pleasurable is more because it creates offspring than because it "brings us closer" or "creates social bonds".
- Nursie 14y agoNo, but it might not have optimised out all the cases where pleasure is not in direct alignment with evolutionary success either.
- simonh 14y agoPretty much every behaviour we exhibit has contexts in which it's detrimental. I don't see how pointing that out in this case contributes to the discussion. Unless you're actually suggesting that the sexual pleasure response is itself an incidental consequence of something else that just hasn't been optimised out yet?
- Nursie 14y ago"Unless you're actually suggesting that the sexual pleasure response is itself an incidental consequence of something else that just hasn't been optimised out yet?" No, I'm just suggesting that it's possible to do activities (sex for recreational purposes far above what's needed for reproduction, rock climbing) that have a pleasure reward without a specific evolutionary reason for the activity, if it hits the pleasure circuits anyway. It may be there are a variety of reasons (bonding etc) or it may be that humans have just found a way to hit their own pleasure button without it being so detrimental to species propagation that either the behaviour or the reward evolves out.