[lbo-talk] Kenneally, some notes and background

[Carrol Cox]

Check the  Pen-L archives for a recent thread, carried out primarily by
Doyle and ravi, under the subject heading, Epigenetics. I haven't read
the thread yet but I browsed in it along the way and it has an important
discussion of the "downgrading" of genes in recent genetic science.
Probably no one not at least semi-professionally involved in genetics
should make pronouncements on "what genes do" without first checking
this thread (or similar sources which I presume exist on the web). I
also call attention to an article by Richard Ledwontin in NYRB a number
of years ago, followed by a vigorous debate in later issues, in which
Lewontin declares that "the tb bacillus does NOT cause TB - i.e., that
it 'causes' tb only under specific social conditios. TB then, as Miles
says of blue  eyes, is an emergent property.

I still think that Miles and Michael Smith should explore ways at
arriving at some sort of shared formulation of their argument on this
genenral issue.

Miles Jackson wrote:
> 
> SA wrote:
> 
> > I think this is a misuse of the concept of an emergent property. [clip]
> I have to be blunt: the passage above reflects the fundamental error
> that I have tried to point out again and again in this thread. Eye
> color
> is not "determined solely by genes".  [clip]T