In science and philosophy, a just-so story is an untestable narrative explanation for a cultural practice, a biological trait, or behavior of humans or other animals. The pejorative[1] nature of the expression is an implicit criticism that reminds the listener of the essentially fictional and unprovable nature of such an explanation. Such tales are common in folklore and mythology (where they are known as etiological myths—see etiology). A less pejorative term is a pourquoi story, which has been used to describe usually more mythological or otherwise traditional examples of this genre, aimed at children.
This phrase is a reference to Rudyard Kipling's 1902 Just So Stories, containing fictional and deliberately fanciful tales for children, in which the stories pretend to explain animal characteristics, such as the origin of the spots on the leopard.[2][3] It has been used to criticize evolutionary explanations of traits that have been proposed to be adaptations, particularly in the evolution–creation debates[4] and in debates regarding research methods in sociobiology[2] and evolutionary psychology.[1]
However, the first widely acknowledged use of the phrase in the modern and pejorative sense seems to have originated in 1978 with Stephen Jay Gould, a prominent paleontologist and popular science writer.[5] Gould expressed deep skepticism as to whether evolutionary psychology could ever provide objective explanations for human behavior, even in principle; additionally, even if it were possible to do so, Gould did not think that it could be proven in a properly scientific way.[5] In the ensuing years many of Gould's conclusions have been challenged by Steve Stewart-Williams and others.
Alternatives in evolutionary developmental biology
How the Snake Lost Its Legs: Curious Tales from the Frontier of Evo-Devo is a 2014 book on evolutionary developmental biology by Lewis I. Held, Jr. The title is "A factual homage to Rudyard Kipling's fanciful Just So Stories."[6][7]
See also
- Demarcation problem, philosophical question of distinguishing science and non-science
- Factoid
- Ipse dixit
- Origin myth
- Pourquoi story
- Richard Lewontin, who accused neo-Darwinists of telling just-so stories
- Social dominance theory
- Testing hypotheses suggested by the data
- Woozle effect
References
- ^ a b David J. Buller (2005). Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature. MIT Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-262-02579-9.
- ^ a b Glen A. Love (2003). Practical Ecocriticism: Literature, Biology, and the Environment. University of Virginia Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-8139-2245-4.
- ^ Rudyard Kipling (1902). "How the Leopard got his Spots". Just So Stories for Little Children. Archived from the original on 2013-04-14.
- ^ Mark Isaak (2007). The Counter-Creationism Handbook. University of California Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-520-24926-4.
- ^ a b Anthony Gottlieb (17 September 2012). "It Ain't Necessarily So".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Martin, Arnaud (2015). "Book Review | When evo-devo transcends the etiological myth". Evolution & Development. 17 (2): 170–171. doi:10.1111/ede.12118.
- ^ "Lewis Irving Held". Texas Tech University. Retrieved 9 February 2018.