Word: lewontin
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...that the nature-nurture controversy was settled with E.O. Wilson's On Human Nature, think again. The flurry of sociobiological literature which followed the publication of Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning book has since died down, it seems, and the pendulum might just be swinging the other way Richard Lewontin's new book. Not in Our Genes--which he co-authored with Steven Rose and Leon Kamin--presents the other side of the debate over genetic determinism...
...Lewontin and his co-authors have written a lucid and energetic rebuttal to the widely publicized news that genes control and and determine all social behavior. Since 1975, at least three new sociobiological journals have started up, and scores of papers and books have been written, following Wilson's celebrated Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. (He later focused on the most controversial aspect of his theory, human sociobiology, in On Human Nature.) Biologists immediately praised the work as an integration of evolutionary biology and anthropology. Sociobiology came into vogue in the late 70s and early 80s, when it was used...
...Lewontin and his co-authors point out that ostensibly objective studies such as those done by Burt are merely tools which these scientists use to confirm a racist and sexist status quo. Biological determinism is just as subjective as any political theory, Lewontin asserts, and must be considered as such. He writes...
...Both Lewontin and Hubbard said that Harvard does considerable research in many areas of genetics--research which group members believe the community should be kept abreast...
Each member of the board has a particular area of concern within the field. Lewontin said he was concerned about discrimination resulting from genetic screening in the workplace, in which employees might be denied jobs because of their sensitivity to certain toxins in their work environment...