Re: I still don't understand the tears...

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message: jamesb@hgu.mrc.ac.uk: "Re: Aquatic ape theory"
• Previous message: H. M. Hubey: "Re: The straw man."
• Maybe in reply to: Bill Burnett: "I still don't understand the tears..."
• Next in thread: jamesb@hgu.mrc.ac.uk: "Re: I still don't understand the tears..."

rdcsaunders@its.dundee.ac.uk (ROBERT SAUNDERS) wrote:

>
>>>In fact, you could even argue that to go from isotonic tears for eye
>>>protection to isotonic tears as an emotional display is more parsimonious
>>>(and, according to some peoples thinking more probable) than to go from
>>>hypertonic excretory tears to isotonic emotional ones.
>>>
>
>Yes!

>
>Prove that humans didn't go directly from isotonic eye protection tears to
>isotonic emotional tears!
>

I can't do this. But I can suggest that if it happened it is likely to have happened in other
terrestrial species too. Do you know of any purely terrestrial animals that weep when they are
upset? I understand that there aren't any. I would be delighted if anyone could find one for me,
then I can get some sleep instead of worrying that the anthropologists are wrong and that the
woman who used to write scripts for Z-Cars might just have the answer to the mysteries of human
evolution.

>
>James, do you understand evolution?
>
I like to think so!

• Next message: jamesb@hgu.mrc.ac.uk: "Re: Aquatic ape theory"
• Previous message: H. M. Hubey: "Re: The straw man."
• Maybe in reply to: Bill Burnett: "I still don't understand the tears..."
• Next in thread: jamesb@hgu.mrc.ac.uk: "Re: I still don't understand the tears..."