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The government part of that theory was suggested to me by my reading on prehistoric communities in the Near East. There was a brief period of sedentism in the Paleolithic that corresponded with a temporary warming trend. See the Natufian culture. No crops were domesticated at the time, but “wild farming” was practiced alongside hunting and
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To be more specific, it’s not that factory jobs are harder or more dangerous for children than farming jobs. It’s that suddenly there’s an opportunity for them NOT to work in that kind of society, so the laws and fashions follow the practicalities. I would argue that the style of government alters due to the same forces. The economy
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I think it’s the practicalities that drive the fashions, and government comes in after the fact and takes advantage taxwise. The more technology one needs (or thinks one needs) at home, the more a two-income family becomes necessary, and the more fashionable it is for the woman to work. The couple with two BMW’s and two Ph.D’s is trendier
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I see gender roles as being largely dependent on a society's economic base, and therefore at least in a large part they are "nurture", not "nature". It all has to do with the birth rate and labor needs of the society. In hunter-gatherer economies, especially in the post-ice age climate that does not favor mass animal migration
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To answer the initial question, absolutely NOT. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"...
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I disagree with the last bit, utterly. Math is applicable to propositions where calculation yields insight. Reason is applicable to propositions that are not subject to calculation but rather to top-down deconstruction. The one is not substitutable for the other. Biology is one of the physical sciences so of course math and the scientific method are
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I think in colloquial use hardly anybody would have the need to use the word "empirical" to mean anything other than a hypothesis from hard science, but I don't really believe there's any confusion about this in reputable academic circles. You wouldn't say that geometry wasn't an empirical science merely because the Pythgorean
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Re: some of Clayton's comments, I believe that both deductive reasoning AND the scientific method are classified as ways of empirical testing. They test different kinds of theories, is all. Economics (a social science), as for example the Austrian school, relies on reason because it tests axioms that are intellectual and not sensory. Formal sciences
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Seconded! I'm waiting for a doctor to call and it's giving me a twitch, all those little beeps
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I agree with Bogart, but we unfortunately live in a society that submitted to the creation of a Fed. The Bill of Rights is a sort of safety valve designed to ensure that the power doesn't fall too far into the government's hands. So it's an irrational document, but it's the way this society has chosen to preserve some power for the people