Jared Diamond brings up an interesting point in the prologue of Guns, Germs, and Steel. He brings up a potential for people to object into looking to the causes behind Yali's question. Yali's question to Jared Diamond was, "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of their own?"
JD rephrases this question: why did white Eurasians dominate over other cultures by means of superior guns, population-destroying germs, steel, and food-producing capability ? JD's main thesis is that this occurred not because of racial differences in intelligence, etc. but rather because of environmental differences.
He has some interesting observations for why asking the question is important and the kinds of potential objections that would be brought up by his searching for the answer to this question.
"...a common tendency to confuse an explanation of causes with a justification or acceptance of results."
"Understanding is more often used to try to alter an outcome than to alter an outcome than to repeat or perpetuate it. That's why psychologists try to understand the minds of murders and rapists, why social historians try to understand genocide and why physicians try to understand the causes of human disease. Those investigators do not seek to justify murder, rape, genocide, and illness. Instead they seek to use their understanding of a chain of causes to interrupt the chain."
So it is good to remember that as people try to understand outcomes for malevolent events such as: horrific acts of violence; oppressive action; systematic bias against or towards groups or peoples, it is important to remember that the study of these conditions is not necessarily advocation or justification but as Jared Diamond states, "use their understanding of a chain of causes to interrupt the chain."
JD rephrases this question: why did white Eurasians dominate over other cultures by means of superior guns, population-destroying germs, steel, and food-producing capability ? JD's main thesis is that this occurred not because of racial differences in intelligence, etc. but rather because of environmental differences.
He has some interesting observations for why asking the question is important and the kinds of potential objections that would be brought up by his searching for the answer to this question.
"...a common tendency to confuse an explanation of causes with a justification or acceptance of results."
"Understanding is more often used to try to alter an outcome than to alter an outcome than to repeat or perpetuate it. That's why psychologists try to understand the minds of murders and rapists, why social historians try to understand genocide and why physicians try to understand the causes of human disease. Those investigators do not seek to justify murder, rape, genocide, and illness. Instead they seek to use their understanding of a chain of causes to interrupt the chain."
So it is good to remember that as people try to understand outcomes for malevolent events such as: horrific acts of violence; oppressive action; systematic bias against or towards groups or peoples, it is important to remember that the study of these conditions is not necessarily advocation or justification but as Jared Diamond states, "use their understanding of a chain of causes to interrupt the chain."
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