It Ain't Necessarily So
R. C. Lewontin(Author)
Granta Books (Publisher)
Published on 17. May 2000
Book
Hardback
334 pages
978-1-86207-203-9 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
Biology now dominates scientific enquiry, and headlines as well. It seems that every week geneticists claim they have accounted for yet another human trait of ailment. But out of the complex research have come exaggerations and misunderstanding of what biology. Especially genetics, can actually tell us. If we map our genes, will we be able to predict the development if our bodies, of diseases - of our personalities? Will we understand social relations better? Will we be able to create life itself?
In these essays from the New York Review of Books, several of which are here updated with new epilogues, Richard Lewontin demystifies some of the most controversial issues in the life sciences today. On topics ranging from Darwin to Dolly the sheep, including biological determinism, heredity and natural selection, evolutionary psychology ad altruism, sex surveys, cloning and the Human Genome Project, he offers both sharp criticisms of the 'overweening pride' of scientists, especially those who have mistaken their social prejudices for scientific facts, and lucid expositions of the exact state of scientific knowledge. In each case, he casts an ever-vigilant and deflationary eye on the temptation to overstate the power of biology to explain everything we want to know about ourselves.
In these essays from the New York Review of Books, several of which are here updated with new epilogues, Richard Lewontin demystifies some of the most controversial issues in the life sciences today. On topics ranging from Darwin to Dolly the sheep, including biological determinism, heredity and natural selection, evolutionary psychology ad altruism, sex surveys, cloning and the Human Genome Project, he offers both sharp criticisms of the 'overweening pride' of scientists, especially those who have mistaken their social prejudices for scientific facts, and lucid expositions of the exact state of scientific knowledge. In each case, he casts an ever-vigilant and deflationary eye on the temptation to overstate the power of biology to explain everything we want to know about ourselves.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 220 mm
Width: 135 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-86207-203-9 (9781862072039)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
10/2001
Granta Books
€32.39
Article is exhausted; no reprint
Previous edition
Book
02/2003
New York Review Books
€38.59
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Richard Lewontin is a leading geneticist and the author of Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA and The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change and co-author of The Dialectical Biologist (with Richard Levins) and Not in Our Genes (with Steven Rose and Leon Kamin). He is Professor of Population Sciences and the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Biology at Harvard University.