Word: lewontin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Richard C. Lewontin, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biology, stands out at Harvard, not for being a brilliant biologist, but for being a radical. He teaches the infamous gut Natural Sciences 36, "Biological Determinism," which is a semester long critique of theories that assert genes are the prime determinants of behaviour and intelligence. The staff teaching Nat. Sci. 36 blatantly stated their relaxed grading policy and the University emasculated the course, offering it only on a pass/fail basis and making it unacceptable for filling the general education requirement. Lewontin also helps teach a biology course on social issues with a similar...
...Lewontin shocks a lot of people in the Government and other departments by placing a relaxed atmosphere over "academic standards" but also because of his dogged devotion to his controversial ideas. He holds his convictions so firmly that he feels little need to compromise even if his adamance reduces his effectiveness. During one lecture he said, "I disagree with the theory because it's wrong...
...point is that this person, in 1977, still thinks that this implies that we are completely different and completely "better." Any evolutionist would laugh himself silly at the notion of "farther down on the evolutionary scale," a notion Emmerich makes use of, but you can bet that Professor Lewontin isn't going to tell Wyatt that, because he is attacking someone who needs attacking "for the good of the people...
Harvard reaction to the decision was reserved. It appeared the decision was expected, at least by several professors who had opposed the research or urged caution in the past, including Richard C. Lewontin '50, professor of Biology, and Everett I. Mendelsohn, professor of History and Science...
...worthless. The hereditarians have nevertheless continued and even stepped up their activities. In the recent Annual Review of Genetics (1976), a long article on "genetics of cognitive behavior" favorably reviews a segment of the large and growing literature on genetic bases of inequality, and repeatedly attacks Richard Lewontin for his sharp criticisms of the I.Q. studies...