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The Mirage of a Space between Nature and Nurture

The Mirage of a Space between Nature and Nurture Why are we obsessed with nature and nurture--or, more precisely, with nature versus nurture? In this short, lucid book, historian and philosopher of science (and erstwhile mathematical biologist) Evelyn Fox Keller explains why the opposition is not only wrong -- nature and nurture work hand in hand -- but also wrongheaded, since to frame the problem in this way obscures the real questions we should be asking about evolution, genetics, and development. As she readily acknowledges, neither of these points is new to most biologists. It is their research that has exploded older doctrines of genes as particulate units of inheritance and even newer doctrines of genes as the sequences of DNA that code for a protein. Lit tle Rev iews Yet the old opposition of nature versus nurture stubbornly persists, and not only in the popular press. Why? Keller's answer is: slippages of language. Our habitual ways of speaking about heredity, development, and traits routinely conflate individuals and populations, traits and trait differences, mutations with mutants. She recognizes that politics also plays a muddling role but contends that language is the chief villain. Can linguistic hygiene alone exorcise metaphysical demons? If so, then this is the book http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

The Mirage of a Space between Nature and Nurture

Daston, L.
Common Knowledge , Volume 20 (2) – Mar 20, 2014
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Duke Univ Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
1538-4578
DOI
10.1215/0961754X-2423007
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Abstract

Why are we obsessed with nature and nurture--or, more precisely, with nature versus nurture? In this short, lucid book, historian and philosopher of science (and erstwhile mathematical biologist) Evelyn Fox Keller explains why the opposition is not only wrong -- nature and nurture work hand in hand -- but also wrongheaded, since to frame the problem in this way obscures the real questions we should be asking about evolution, genetics, and development. As she readily acknowledges, neither of these points is new to most biologists. It is their research that has exploded older doctrines of genes as particulate units of inheritance and even newer doctrines of genes as the sequences of DNA that code for a protein. Lit tle Rev iews Yet the old opposition of nature versus nurture stubbornly persists, and not only in the popular press. Why? Keller's answer is: slippages of language. Our habitual ways of speaking about heredity, development, and traits routinely conflate individuals and populations, traits and trait differences, mutations with mutants. She recognizes that politics also plays a muddling role but contends that language is the chief villain. Can linguistic hygiene alone exorcise metaphysical demons? If so, then this is the book

Journal

Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 20, 2014

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