[tame_deuces]

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appreciation for art and music? I just can't see how those abilities fit well with the whole "survival of the fittest" concept. The only explanation I can think of is those abilities are simply byproducts of the ability to recognize patterns. However that explanation just doesn't feel right. We appreciate art and music too much for it to be a byproduct.

Stu

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I think your first question is excellent, but I think the conclusion at the end is false. Evolution is the process that shapes the final product, but the culture and society we live in can be vastly different and our interests differ greatly.

What I'm saying is that evolution is an excellent explanation to explain how something came to be and to explain our capacity for it, but sometimes you will have to go to society -> communication -> culture to explore it further, and then maybe you have to go back again.

And no, there is no inherent conflict between the two, and looking at either does not mean you in anyway deny or ignore the other. I guess a way of saying it is to say evolution shaped us and created inherent bias for certain things, and our culture is by-product of what we became that interacts with what we are.