What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee by Jonathan Marks

Author:Jonathan Marks [Marks, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-02-17T05:00:00+00:00

benefits to some scientists who pursue these lines of argument, they are counteracted by the long-term harm both to the science of genetics and to the authority of science generally.

And it is the responsibility of behavioral geneticists to point this out. If they don’t, the rest of us can’t be expected to.

e p i l o g u e

The millennial issue of the Scientific American includes an ostensibly balanced and objective article called “The End of Nature versus Nurture” by Frans de Waal, a primatologist. While sensibly eschewing

“simple-minded genetic determinism,” he also reports that “the evidence for a connection between genes and behavior is mounting.

Studies of twins reared apart have reached the status of common knowledge. . . .”

That is, of course, the problem. They are nothing but common knowledge. De Waal’s Scientific American article is actually illustrated up front with a set of identical twins, and tells us, “Twins reared apart have been studied for clues about the relative contributions of genes and environment to human behavior. These brothers,” it goes on,

“rediscovered each other later in life when both were mustachioed firefighters.”

So genes determine who wears a moustache?

Or genes control being a firefighter?

Otherwise, what is the point of calling this to our attention?

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