NN

To SM (262)
In my original post on “eros,” (http://nuallan.livejournal.com/53190.html) I note that this concept is underpinned by a previous post giving explicit proof for hierarchy (http://nuallan.livejournal.com/52878.html) – the proof for hierarchy came first; though you seem to have latched onto them in reverse order. That I am telling you that any discussion of hierarchy based on “eros” must first presuppose that hierarchy exists is something I have already said and should not be strange to you.

But to clarify the nature of the other statement – we have a quote in physics:
“But the real glory of [a conceptual model] is not that we can find the answer, but that we can find a way of thinking such that the answer is self-evident.”
The concept of “eros” as explaining marital hierarchy is a model; but we must have a common understanding of the data before a model can possibly make any sense.

This is what leads us back to the content of (239) – we must be mutually clear on the data before having a meaningful discussion of the model.