Evolution and Emotions: fitness

Climbing out of the rabbit hole

After a long hiatus I have decided to add to this little blog some more. I stopped for so long because my previous posts sent me down an unexpected rabbit hole. What was supposed to be a simple question, “what are emotions?” which I was asking simply to lay the foundation for a different question, put me onto a mission to find and explore what I believe to be a better answer than what was available. I stopped blogging because I was initially hoping to publish these ideas and, for some academic journals, blogging constitutes publishing in another venue. Since then, though, my life plans have moved away from academia and racking up publications is no longer that important. I have other goals for my work so I am not ready to spell everything out (the model has come a long way since the previous posts on this blog) but thinking and learning about emotions has led me to enough tangential ideas that I think I can justify taking another crack at blogging. So, let me tell you about my adventures in Wonderland…

Monday, 1 August 2011

1. Understanding the Theory of Evolution

To begin, let’s lay down some ground rules, the first and foremost being that the Theory of Evolution in its most general sense is true. For me to argue for Evolution would be redundant and ineffective next to the works of far more elegant authors such as Richard Dawkins and Charles Darwin. Also, for me to constantly consider that this theory is not true would not only be highly unnatural to me at this point but would also detract from the points I am trying to make. That being said, I believe that my effort to remember that I did not always believe in evolution will be one of my greatest assets in writing this in a way that appeals to both sides of the argument. So, to make sure we are all on the same page I will begin by describing what is meant (or at least what I mean) by the Theory of Evolution (by natural selection).