gender stuff is controversial (who knew?)

I accidentally rediscovered a paper — actually, a transcript of a talk — on a controversial topic (human psychological dimorphism) in a controversial field (evolutionary psychology). It’s called ”Is There Anything Good About Men?”. Its originator has since written a book from his work. I’d read the speech once before but lost track of it.

The site I found it on was a gaming site, which I absolutely did not expect. The site author’s summary of the talk and the subsequent comment thread were enlightening. Several commenters brought intelligent criticisms to bear, the strongest and most central of which being that gathering a bunch of data and then coming up with a believable explanation that accounts for it all is merely the beginning of an investigation. The explanation is not a fact or even a theory, that process isn’t the scientific method, and if that’s all you do, you’re not a respectable scientist (or a scientist at all, technically). On the flip side, there was the site author’s characteristic frustratingly level-headed attitude of refusing to accept irrational, emotional responses. Data becomes objectionable when it’s collected improperly, not because it offends you or because it’s been used to justify immoral behavior in the past.

Like I said, an interesting read, and more enlightening that the first time I came across it.