Not in Our Genes
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Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature is a controversial 1984 book by the biologists Richard Lewontin, Steven Rose and Leon J. Kamin in which they criticise sociobiology, particularly biological determinism and the reductionism in the gene-centric view of evolution.
Sociobiologists accuse Lewontin et al of creating a straw man of their discipline, and being biased by left-wing extremist ideology.[verification needed] A review by Richard Dawkins in New Scientist was particularly scathing, accusing the authors of having a "bizarre conspiracy theory of science", and accusing them of lies, idiocity, and concluding that it is a "silly, pretentious, obscurantist and mendacious book".
Rose developed the themes of this book in a commentary in Nature suggesting that "Dramatic advances in neuroscience are changing and enriching our understanding of brain and behaviour. But reductionist interpretations of these advances can cause great harm"[1]
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[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Steven Rose "The rise of neurogenetic determinism" Nature 373, 380 - 382 (02 February 1995)
