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What Is Natural?
Thomas Pardoe (tpardoe@chat.carleton.ca)
Thu, 26 Jan 1995 01:30:44 GMT
In the previous thread on whether extinction by human pollution etc.
constituted natural selection, someone mentioned something about it
not being so because human intervention in the environment (i.e.
culture and technology) is not in itself natural. (I don't remember
who, and that's not my point). I don't wish to restart the whole
natural selection x-postflamefest, but I wish to pose a question:
Hasn't homo sapiens' (sapien's?) primary adpatation to the
world been cultural, specifically, technological? And if so, aren't
cultural and technological adaptations therefore "natural"? I
recognize of course that over time, cultural adaptations likely result
in physical and genetic changes in brain structure and function.
Potential sources further insight: Don Ihde, "Technology in the Lifeworld,"
and David Rothenberg's "Hand's End."
Just askin'...
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Thomas Pardoe
Carleton University
I am the slime oozing out from your TV set.
- Frank Vincent Zappa, 1940-1993
Email address: tpardoe@chat.carleton.ca
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