Evolutionarily speaking, death is seen as the worst possible outcome for survival of the species and individual gene pool. Major depression drastically increases the possibility of suicide and loss of motivation in all life activities. Thus, no explanation is sufficient to override this indelible fact and the individual is forced to look beyond all materialistic explanations.
I don’t think you get evolution…species do go extinct, you know…
…evolution accounts for everything.
It does?
Depression is perhaps a side-effect of evolutionarily beneficial traits. Higher intelligence and self-awareness, in a package with some other positive traits, could easily have resulted in a species capable of suffering from “depression”
anyway, the title of the OP is ridiculous anyway. it’s always ridiculous when people criticize some theory or school of thought because it doesn’t explain something that has nothing to do with the theory. “Quantum Physics is wrong because it can’t explain the existence of autism.” WELL DUH autism has nothing to do with quantum physics, of course quantum physics doesn’t explain it.
Yes, it is the nature of the theory. It is pretty much all encompassing. Species either evolve or go extinct. So every behavior and trait you can think of is somehow the result of evolution.
that’s a nonsequitur, and it’s also not true.
how?
Higher intelligence and self-awareness don’t mean shit when you’re dead or are unwilling to do anything. Please try again.
Please go look up the purpose of evolution, then get back to me.
There’s no such thing as a bad outcome in nature. That a sun explodes is not bad, and that it might take out a whole galaxy isn’t worse, or that it might tear the fabric of space and time or whatever isn’t worst. These are things we say of events based on whether they conform to our intentions and desires. That said, evolutionarily speaking the worst thing isn’t death; it’s bad jeans that get passed down, or good jeans that don’t.
“Genes”
I like how you left out the second half of the sentence. Please try reading the whole entire sentence next time to understand it’s context. I know it’s hard.
Nothing points to the existence of a purpose of evolution.
Sorry, but natural selection is the most commonly applied theory for the purposes of evolution. Natural selection is by definition adaptation by development of traits beneficial to ensured survival of the species.
2 other explanations are mutations and genetic drift, none of which explain depression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_approaches_to_depression
So if clinical depression is so prevalent; a worldwide epidemic, why is it so obviously non-adaptive evolutionarily speaking?
There’s many species that die while procreating, or shortly thereafter.
it’s a nonsequitur because what follows from the point after you say “so” doesn’t logically follow from anything before that.
there are plenty of examples of traits without any evolutionary advantage being spread throughout a species. i think at least one mechanism for that is “genetic drift”
that’s why i said it was a side-effect.
you’d be a good campainer against pharmaceuticals, if there were a viagra-like pill that had some small risk of depression you could go around the country saying “A harder cock don’t meant shit when you’re dead or unwilling to do anything”
However, logically speaking, it doesn’t really cut it. Just because something has a small risk of a bad side effect doesn’t mean it isn’t a good/desirable thing. Please try again.
as for this “purpose” garbage, gotta go with Sauw on that one. You don’t get it. Please go look up evolution, find out why there is no purpose, write a short essay on it, and bring it to my desk monday morning.
i’ve read theories about depression wherein its associated behaviors are a means of soliciting help from others - withdrawing, sleeping all day, ceasing to care about things other people care about, etc - all originally evolved as a means of getting others to pay attention to one’s misery.
don’t know how true it is, but it works as a theory - i can attest to that from real-life experience
I also liked how you actually linked to a page full of the explanations you’re looking for, and then just contradicted it immediately after without any logical reason.
Read the page buddy. It’s a fuckin gold mine. Tons of evolutionary explanations I hadn’t even thought of. Really brilliant.
I want to point out, of course, that this sort of exercise, demanding that depression be explained by evolution, is actually not very productive. coming up with an evolutionary reason why depression happens can be fun, but I want to point out that no evolutionary explanation can ever be proven to be the one that is true. the only information we have access to regarding this problem is (a) that we almost certainly did evolve and (b) that we sometimes have depression. the connection between a and b can only be theoretical, because the information that would tell is why just isn’t available. there is no “why” coded in our genes, there is no “why” inherent in the depression itself.
so we can have fun coming up with potential explanations, and i did enjoy reading about them, an interesting thought experiment, but there can not and will not ever be a conclusive explanation, and there doesn’t need to be.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/purpose
If by “purpose” you mean anything other than “a subject under discussion”, you’re using the word wrong with regard to evolution.