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Stephen Diamond's avatar

we eat food and drink water because without nutrition and fluids we would starve and dehydrate.

Yes, the "because" relates to function. An explanation by function is often a deeper explanation than one that describes the proximal mechanism - or the motive!

I don't think you would say the our eating and drinking is motivated by avoiding starvation and dehydration. In any even, I think it would be erroneous. (Function is greater than motivation.) Yet the Amazon description of the Elephant book says, "The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is 'the elephant in the brain.'"

You (or whoever wrote this) invites the belief that you are talking about motives (whether conscious or not) rather than about function.

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Jim Balter's avatar

The reasons people eat and drink are different from people's reasons for eating and drinking. Duh.

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