Word: lewontin
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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...
Whatever patience he lacks on the soapbox, Lewontin makes up for in the laboratory. Academic critics and supporters acknowledge his professional competence--something radicals always need a little more of to be tenured, in order to compensate for their political beliefs. And politics is an integral part of his scientific theories. Lewontin believes the acceptance of many racial and genetic theories by scientists reflects, in part, their own elitist and racial prejudices...
...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...