Biology As Ideology

Author : Richard Lewontin
Publisher : House of Anansi
ISBN 13 : 0887848478
Total Pages : 112 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Biology As Ideology written by Richard Lewontin and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 1996-10-23 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: R. C. Lewontin is a prominent scientist -- a geneticist who teaches at Harvard -- yet he believes that we have placed science on a pedestal, treating it as an objective body of knowledge that transcends all other ways of knowing and all other endeavours. Lewontin writes in this collection of essays, which began their life as CBC Radio's Massey Lectures Series for 1990: "Scientists do not begin life as scientists, after all, but as social beings immersed in a family, a state, a productive structure, and they view nature through a lens that has been molded by their social experience... . Science, like the Church before it, is a supremely social institution, reflecting and reinforcing the dominant values and vices of society at each historical epoch." In Biology as Ideology Lewontin examines the false paths down which modern scientific ideology has led us. By admitting science's limitations, he helps us rediscover the richness of nature -- and appreciate the real value of science.

Author : Denis R. Alexander
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226608425
Total Pages : 461 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Biology and Ideology from Descartes to Dawkins written by Denis R. Alexander and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-05-15 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of human history, the sciences, and biology in particular, have often been manipulated to cause immense human suffering. For example, biology has been used to justify eugenic programs, forced sterilization, human experimentation, and death camps—all in an attempt to support notions of racial superiority. By investigating the past, the contributors to Biology and Ideology from Descartes to Dawkins hope to better prepare us to discern ideological abuse of science when it occurs in the future. Denis R. Alexander and Ronald L. Numbers bring together fourteen experts to examine the varied ways science has been used and abused for nonscientific purposes from the fifteenth century to the present day. Featuring an essay on eugenics from Edward J. Larson and an examination of the progress of evolution by Michael J. Ruse, Biology and Ideology examines uses both benign and sinister, ultimately reminding us that ideological extrapolation continues today. An accessible survey, this collection will enlighten historians of science, their students, practicing scientists, and anyone interested in the relationship between science and culture.

Author : Richard Lewontin
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781608467273
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Not in Our Genes written by Richard Lewontin and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three eminent scientists analyze the scientific, social, and political roots of biological determinism.

Author : Richard C. Lewontin
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780140232196
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Doctrine of DNA written by Richard C. Lewontin and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, the latest in the continuing debate between the genetic reductionists (such as Richard Dawkins, John Maynard Smith and E.O. Wilson) and those who argue for a rather more complex relationship between genes and the environment (such as Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Rose and Niles Eldredge). Lewontin is a forceful writer and this is an effective statement of the case against the selfish gene.

Author : Richard Levins
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674255313
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Dialectical Biologist written by Richard Levins and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1987-03-15 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists act within a social context and from a philosophical perspective that is inherently political. Whether they realize it or not, scientists always choose sides. The Dialectical Biologist explores this political nature of scientific inquiry, advancing its argument within the framework of Marxist dialectic. These essays stress the concepts of continual change and codetermination between organism and environment, part and whole, structure and process, science and politics. Throughout, this book questions our accepted definitions and biases, showing the self-reflective nature of scientific activity within society.

Author : Bonnie Spanier
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780253209689
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Im/partial Science written by Bonnie Spanier and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best known today for her nature writing and southwestern cultural studies, Mary Hunter Austin (1868-1934) has been increasingly recognized for her outspoken essays on feminist themes. This volume collects her nonfiction journalism, with each essay prefaced by brief introductory remarks by the editor. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author : Richard Lewontin
Publisher : New York Review of Books
ISBN 13 : 9780940322950
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book It Ain't Necessarily So written by Richard Lewontin and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2001-09-30 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is our nature—as individuals, as a species—determined by our evolution and encoded in our genes? If we unravel the protein sequences of our DNA, will we gain the power to cure all of our physiological and psychological afflictions and even to solve the problems of our society? Today biologists—especially geneticists—are proposing answers to questions that have long been asked by philosophy or faith or the social sciences. Their work carries the weight of scientific authority and attracts widespread public attention, but it is often based on what the renowned evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin identifies as a highly reductive misconception: "the pervasive error that confuses the genetic state of an organism with its total physical and psychic nature as a human being." In these nine essays covering the history of modern biology from Darwin to Dolly the sheep, all of which were originally published in The New York Review of Books, Lewontin combines sharp criticisms of overreaching scientific claims with lucid expositions of the exact state of current scientific knowledge—not only what we do know, but what we don't and maybe won't anytime soon. Among the subjects he discusses are heredity and natural selection, evolutionary psychology and altruism, nineteenth-century naturalist novels, sex surveys, cloning, and the Human Genome Project. In each case he casts an ever-vigilant and deflationary eye on the temptation to look to biology for explanations of everything we want to know about our physical, mental, and social lives. These essays—several of them updated with epilogues that take account of scientific developments since they were first written—are an indispensable guide to the most controversial issues in the life sciences today. The second edition of this collection includes new essays on genetically modified food and the completion of the Human Genome Project. It is an indispensable guide to the most controversial issues in the life sciences today.

Author : Richard C. Lewontin
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674006775
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Triple Helix written by Richard C. Lewontin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of our most brilliant evolutionary biologists, Richard Lewontin here provides a concise, accessible account of what his work has taught him about biology and about its relevance to human affairs. In the process, he exposes some of the common and troubling misconceptions that misdirect and stall our understanding of biology and evolution.

Author : John R. Hibbing
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136281215
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Predisposed written by John R. Hibbing and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buried in many people and operating largely outside the realm of conscious thought are forces inclining us toward liberal or conservative political convictions. Our biology predisposes us to see and understand the world in different ways, not always reason and the careful consideration of facts. These predispositions are in turn responsible for a significant portion of the political and ideological conflict that marks human history. With verve and wit, renowned social scientists John Hibbing, Kevin Smith, and John Alford—pioneers in the field of biopolitics—present overwhelming evidence that people differ politically not just because they grew up in different cultures or were presented with different information. Despite the oft-heard longing for consensus, unity, and peace, the universal rift between conservatives and liberals endures because people have diverse psychological, physiological, and genetic traits. These biological differences influence much of what makes people who they are, including their orientations to politics. Political disputes typically spring from the assumption that those who do not agree with us are shallow, misguided, uninformed, and ignorant. Predisposed suggests instead that political opponents simply experience, process, and respond to the world differently. It follows, then, that the key to getting along politically is not the ability of one side to persuade the other side to see the error of its ways but rather the ability of each side to see that the other is different, not just politically, but physically. Predisposed will change the way you think about politics and partisan conflict. As a bonus, the book includes a "Left/Right 20 Questions" game to test whether your predispositions lean liberal or conservative.

Author : Evelyn Fox KELLER
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674039440
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Making Sense of Life written by Evelyn Fox KELLER and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do biologists want? How will we know when we have 'made sense' of life? Explanations in the biological sciences are provisional and partial, judged by criteria as heterogenous as their subject matter. This text accounts for this diversity.