[lbo-talk] Don't Mess With Mom

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Sat Jun 26 19:09:40 PDT 2004


Yes, Miles is right. I've even written a paper about this elementary truth. (It hasn't been published yet.) The confusion will not die. I had an extraordinarily intelligent person, a biz PhD with some biological knowledge, tell me today that she thought that character or personality was almost entirely "genetic," although with training and disciple one might overcome genetic proclivities. Moreover, the pop sociobiological literature, some of which is written Harvard professors of biology, is full of this error, even though the proponents will sometimes retreat temporarily if pushed. The fact is, most people think that "biological" or "genetic" means "fixed independently of the environment." Another very smart woman, former philosophy prof, NYU law student, author of an excellent book, recently commented on a draft of the above-mentioned paper, sating disapprovingly that she thought it was a bad idea to concede that genetics might make contribution to explaining human behavior, because it concedes what the right wing says about human nature. --- Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 lweiger at umich.edu wrote:
>
> > Of course "both environment and genes must
> interact to produce any specific
> > traits." It's not like you could clone me by
> extracting some of my DNA and
> > placing it in a vacuum. NO ONE OVER THE AGE OF
> FIVE HAS EVER HAD SUCH A
> > HORRIBLY CONFUSED UNDERSTANDING OF HOW GENES WORK
> (at least in recent times).
> > Please be more charitable.
>
> >From my own experience teaching and reading
> people's opinions online,
> I'd say naive genetic determinism is alive and well.
> I wish your
> statement above in caps were true, but it's not.
>
> Miles
>
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>
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