PHL243H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Bayes Estimator, Parthenogenesis, Unicellular Organism
Document Summary
There is by nature just one natural end of sex. Aquinas and natural law: merges two senses of law. But that natural end has to be enforced. Non-reproductive use of sex is per-version, and sin. It is not merely natural, but backed by god"s command. Problems: how do we discover what nature intends, what"s good about natural anyway. The economic point of view consists in evaluating an action in terms of the value of its consequences: look at the different consequences an action might have and weight each one by its probability of its occurrence. The expected utility u of an option is defined as the sum of the values of each possible outcomes di weighted by its probability p. Three assumptions: a source of variation or diversity. Have to start with a variety of things that they have to be capable of being passed on: heritability, almost but not quite perfect.
