What do you understand from an "evolutionary approach"?

Answer 1

When we look at objects we can ponder their past, their history, what came before.

An evolutionary approach to the automobile would take us into the past to see the various innovations and how they were combined to give us todays cars.

An evolutionary approach would not be much help in predicting future changes though.

But we might imagine that as different parts of the car, like the carburator, were improved there might be a continuation or refinement of that part that continues.

Of course, we'd be wrong about carburators because fuel injection has replaced that technology, huh?

So future evolution is not easily predicted in detail.

Change is not always met by success.

The future will continue to look similar to the past but only in general.

Answer 2

I prefer to call it an "Adaptive Approach". Evolution traditionally means gradual change over time. Biologically, change occurs in spurts over a shorter period due to some stress such as environmental change, or due to a mutation that gives an advantageous edge to a fertile specimen. A species of moth in California was observed in the late 1980's to suddenly change into a darker color, this was due to pollution darkening the bark of the trees that the moth would perch and camouflage itself on. The lighter moths got eaten, while the darker ones blended in and escaped the beaks that sought it. So it survived to breed and pass on its trait. Humans tend to become taller with each generation, this is because the gene for height comes in multiples, and the more you have, the taller you will become. It is due to quantity. It would seem as if the human species gradually growing talller over time would be like classic evolution, but it does not make a tall man into a different species that a short man, nor is being tall particularly advantageous. For example: If a meteor were to crash into the earth, shorter people would be more likely to survive due to the ability to thrive on less food, and I'm assuming that food would be in short supply after such a disaster. After many eons of adaptation, assuming modern humans arose from some of the early hominids in the fossil record, then we can assume that they had evolved, although there is no evidence connecting Modern Human to anything other than Cro-magnon. Keep on digging.

Answer 3

An "evolutionary approach" helps to explain the differences between forms of life. It also helps to explain the complexity of the relationships between different living things, and how different species can be dependent on each other.

For humans, though, it doesn't explain everything. Human's biggest evolutionary adaptation is the ability to produce culture. In the simplest terms, this means that humans can store information outside of their bodies - other animals have to either be programmed to do something or they must use their memories of past experiences to solve the problems of life. Not us: we can look things up, we can ask our elders, we can make pictures and write things down, and ultimately we can adjust our environments in ways unknown anywhere else in the animal kingdom.

The gross product of this adaptation of ours is that we've in many ways learned to make some kinds of natural selection moot. Significantly, the top three causes of death in Western societies are a) heart disease, b) cancer, and c) . . . (I forget the third one, I think it was accidents, someone can correct me) . . . but the thing that all three of the top causes of death in Western societies had in common was that they were the result of personal decisions (such as chosing to eat rich foods consistently over other foods, or smoking), and not necessarily linked to what could be considered "environmental" causes. Is this natural selection? You tell me what all this helps us to understand!

Answer 4

that learned behaviorism~sucks
that we are prisoners unless we transfer the key salvageable elements of democracy on to the Internet dump this dated style of giving Representative government a hammer to beat us too death with, the evolution of freedom lies in voting and the vote is lost to the maze of confiscations they take everything and sell it back to us, not entirely but effectively enough so that we can't vote and get own freedom because of stated and local steering committees never fail to kick @ss if any one falls out of line in lock step methodologies, we born into this self defeat unless they want u and then it is just a roll and every one wants to be on a roll but the game sucks so back to the drawing board and study the gov't think tanks some more evolution will have to be team computer and then it would be a random leap to escape big brother and in the end the punishment could go to someone more deserving

Answer 5

A lot of things, actually. My political and moral beliefs have been heavily influenced by my study of cultures and how humans have evolved. Humans evolved as a social species, and we've managed to survive and adapt so well partly because we take care of each other. Learning from our elders wouldn't do much if there weren't any elders to learn from. It's strengthened my conviction that we need to do the best we can by each other and help out those who need it.

Answer 6

Religion.

Answer 7

Evolutions means things evolve. If this is true as human's evolve we will eventually start seeing what others will consider mutants. Think Xmen here. And being that scientists do not yet know all the intricate workings of the human brain, who is to say we don't already have the capacity for "super powers."

Answer 8

Everything. Almost everything has an evolutionary explanation.

Answer 9

The " ultimate " causation of a phenomenon. The " why " of man. You start thinking about ever more complex systems; which is really what" all "is all about.

Answer 10

I would say someon is talking about some topic (biology, human behavior, etc...) from the perspective that evolution is real.

Whether the speaker really understands evolution is in doubt.