Friday, February 24, 2012

Don't Shave Your Beard (It's of No Evolutionary Advantage)

Question: If you accept Levin's premise, wouldn't any use of a body part, if that use had no evolutionary advantage, be abnormal?

While I don't think that Michael Levin would contend with the conclusions of this argument, I think that his argument would eventually lead to the conclusion that any non-evolutionary advantageous use of a body part would be unnatural. Given that Michael Levin probably has had his hair cut, and shaved his beard, I can assume that he wouldn't agree with that conclusion, so he would probably try to explain it away. Playing the piano certainly has no evolutionary advantage, so by Levin's standards that is out. In addition to that, based of of Levin's conclusion, I would have to assume that the only natural and normal sex is the bare minimum that is needed for child-having. So I certainly hope that nobody, not excluding Levin, has every done anything outside of that minimum. He seems to forget that there is only one thing that heterosexuals do that homosexuals cannot. He also seems to forget that those sexual organs are also there for pleasure, for most people at least.

1 comment:

  1. If you accept Levin's premise, then shaving your beard is still considered acceptable and moral behavior. First of all, Levin contends that the unhappiness factor of using a body part innappropriately relates to the outcome of this use. To him, homosexual actions are no replacement for heterosexual ones. In the case of the beard, humans have disconvered ways to behaviorally adapt to not need a beard. A pianist is not using his hands in a way that deprives them of "normal" functioning. Humans have found other ways to keep their face warm, and in that sense, the beard can be seen as largely vestigial. Humans have found no other ways to reproduce, and reproductive organs are clearly not vestigial. Secondly, the sexual organs are there for pleasure, but it is not their primary function. The pleasure response solely exists as a motivator to practice the act as frequently as possible, and hopefully make tons of babies. Having heterosexual relations for pleasure is just preparation for the furthering of our species- homosexual relations however, lead only to unhappiness. I mean, just think of all those bad movies.

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