(January 29, 2014 at 2:13 am)rasetsu Wrote:
Do you believe that, "humanity advances through a struggle in which superior groups (race or classes) triumph over inferior ones?" (Steven Pinker)
Me?
Well .. hm. You could really only agree or disagree with that statement with hindsight though. Whether a group of people is superior or inferior to others is subjective and depends largely on the environment and circumstances. Many of us would not fare well if we were transported back to medieval times, so they're superior to us in terms of survival in that period. But in general, with hindsight (and bias), of course the groups of people that allowed us to get where we are today would be considered superior and we would think that their triumphs allowed advances such as ourselves to be alive. But then of course the winners would have a greater hand in shaping the future and make it suit themselves better ... so. I think it's like evolution, doesn't really have a direction without the benefit of hindsight.
And advancement is owed to accumulation of knowledge, not so much that people in general became better and smarter people, IMO. Although I think IQs have been going up lately, but I think maybe we're just teaching people in ways that increase the type of intelligence measured in IQ tests because I don't think evolution happens that quickly unless selection is really strong.
