File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9804, message 68


From: Carrol Cox <cbcox-AT-rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Re: Sociobiology
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 14:04:53 -0600 (CST)


> Ha! Or as Stephen Jay Gould put it, you can find an example in nature to
> prove almost any point (kind of like citing Lenin for the orthodox).
> 
> Doug

Yeah. I believe that mink know not of consensual sex but only of "rape."
Note that when referring to non-human animal conduct, "rape" becomes a
metaphor. And many species of fish, I believe, can have "intercourse"
without ever coming into physical proximity: the male fish sprays its
sperm on the laid eggs. I rather imagine that most "naturalisms" are
grounded in anthropocentrism in the sense of reading "human motives" into
other species. It's the "scientific" version of the pathetic fallacy.

Carrol



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