Talk:Just-so story

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Contents

[edit] Pourquois stories

Another name for just-so stories is "pourquois stories." Which of these two terms is more commonly used? Joyous | Talk 21:08, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

I have never heard of pourquois stories (I understand it is french for why but I've never heard the term). Who uses it? I think the term just-so story is current, or at least readily understood, among American biologists and anthropologists. I heard if from a physical anthropologist and I think I have seen it in print in a popular science article context. Who uses pourquois? alteripse 03:23, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Maybe "pourquois" is used more in the education field, where these stories often make up study units. That would explain why I'm more familiar with that term. Joyous | Talk 03:29, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Does the phrase carry the same dismissive connotation in education? alteripse 03:41, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Nnnnoooo, I don't think so. Elementary and middle school reading programs often use them within the study of the folklore of a particular region. Kids are often encouraged to write their own pourquoi stories, because the brainstorming procedure is so easy. They just have to think of a characteristic of an animal, then work backwards to create a story about how it came to be that way. Joyous | Talk 04:26, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Then they sound like 2 different labels for 2 different purposes used by 2 different communities and only partially referring to the same thing. Why don't you write a brief definition of pourquois story and we can link them? alteripse 07:39, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Affirm that recommendation for a separate page and then provide cross links between them. While similar, pourquois stories sound more positive similar to Kiplings Just So Stories. A Just-so story here has more of a negative context. There are also relatively few references to pourquois stories compared to numerous Just-so story examples. e.g., see Amazon, vs scholar.google.com. DLH (talk) 22:20, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Major issue is spelling and capitalization: pourquoi vs pourquois. Recommend cross links and disambiguation pages. DLH (talk) 22:36, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Quotes & References

Moved quotes and reference examples here after they were deleted from Just So StoriesDLH 01:58, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, this is the article. alteripse 02:29, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Duncharris This is material is from multiple editors and was moved here from Just So Stories. If you wnat to major changes, please address the issues here in Discussion rather than just reverting them because of your POV.
Duncharris just reverted major material additions and references a second time and moved to delete the page without discussion.DLH 20:56, 1 July 2006 (UTC)


Here is the edited version with major section moved here from Just So Stories with multiple editors input, together with additional references citing scientific reviews using this terminology:

Start proposed material------------ DLH 21:03, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

A just-so story is a term used in academic anthropology, biological sciences, and social sciences for a narrative explanation for a cultural practice or a biological trait or behavior of humans or animals which is unverifiable and unfalsifiable. The use of the term is an implicit criticism that reminds the hearer of the essentially fictional and unprovable nature of such an explanation.

[edit] Evolutionary Biology

[edit] Darwin's Whale story

Some consider evolutionary biology as presenting origin accounts similar to Kipling's Just-So Stories. e.g., in On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin originally gave an example of a bear transforming into a whale sized creature.

In North America the black bear was seen by Hearne swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, like a whale, insects in the water. Even in so extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted competitors did not already exist in the country, I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale.[1] [2]

[edit] Lamarckian Just-so stories

Because of some Just-so stories' extravagant nature, burlesquing the Lamarckian theory of heredity, the "inheritance of acquired traits", the phrase "just so story" has acquired the meaning, in evolutionary biology, of an unnecessarily elaborate and speculative evolutionary explanation that, while it may fit the facts, lacks any shred of empirical support.

[edit] Evolutionary biology critiques

Scientific reviews refer to Just-so stories for narratives failing scientific rigor. e.g.,

Wade’s explanations commit various well-known errors, such as equating correlation with causation and extrapolating from individual traits to group characteristics….The book has many internal inconsistencies, and one can easily find contrary evidence or readily construct alternative ‘just so’ stories that invoke the same genetic scenario and the same kind of reasoning.[3]

[edit] Evolutionary psychology

Many of the claims of evolutionary psychology that certain human traits were naturally selected for because of the environment humans lived in thousands of years ago are criticized as modern just-so stories. e.g.,

Flanagan does give a just-so story about how consciousness could have evolved through natural selection, but just-so stories run counter to his very simple methodological suggestion --- use all the information one can get from any science that seems relevant to the task at hand; otherwise, wait until the data is available. Just-so stories aren't very scientific. Indeed, as long as we are allowed to spin arm-chair theories, why not consider consciousness to be a phenotypic free-rider, like the chin, such that no Darwinian story is going to explain its purpose, since it does not have one. [4]

[edit] Rudyard Kippling's Just So Stories

This phrase is used in a reference to the Just So Stories of Rudyard Kipling, which are fictional and deliberately fanciful explanations for children of animal characteristics such as the spots of a leopard (e.g., How the Leopard Got His Spots).

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Darwin, Charles, On The Origin of Species, 1859, London, John Murray, 1st Edition, CHAP.VI, 184 DIFFICULTIES ON THEORY.
  2. ^ [1] Origin of Species 1st Edition Ch.VI 184
  3. ^ Weiss, Kenneth M. & Buchanan Anne V.; In your own image Nature 441, 813-814 (15 Jun 2006)
  4. ^ Hardcastle, Valerie Gray and Pruim, Peter E. 1993, PSYCHE, 1(2), December 1993

[edit] See also


End proposed section------------

Please comment add et.DLH 21:03, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Please don't. From both a biological and a literary perspective, there are several errors, and from a style perspective there are faulty parallelisms and a failure to convey the central concept. It is inferior to the existing text. I fear you will find this offensive though it is not intended to be, but it seems to me that either you still don't grasp the essence of what it means to call a proposed evolutionary explanation a "just-so story" (i.e., a proposed evolutionary explanation that is unlikely to be either supported or rejected by attainable evidence is no more scientific than one of Kipling's children's stories)-- or else you are failing to convey it to the reader. alteripse 12:49, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External Links

Moving those here from the article itself. Should provide good sources to include in the article, but shouldn't appear in the article itself like this. ~ trialsanderrors 04:49, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External Links

Scholarly works citing "Just-so story" or "Just-so stories" See following Google Scholar searches:


Evolution Advocates

Alphabetized. Added creation. DLH 04:53, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Keep Links I think these should be added as external links. This is a contentious subject. These links allow users to explore the citations and evaluate for themselves. The frequency of these cites also indicate the importance of the issues. DLH 04:53, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

We're not Google. The fact that the term is frequently cited was relevant to the AfD but is (mostly) irrelevant to the article. If you want to make the point that the term is frequently used provide various examples from different notable authors in different fields. The links should give you enough material. ~ trialsanderrors 06:32, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
Agreed. WP:NOT applies here. Particularly since there's a distinct whiff of soapboxing with these links. FeloniousMonk 05:53, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

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