Naujausi A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T V W Y Z
Autoriai: JONATHAN MICHAEL KAPLAN
Metai:
ISBN: 0-415-92638-6
Brūkšninis kodas: 003075097746
Ieškoti VUB kataloge
Anotacija:
"A thought-provoking exploration of how the current privileging of the genetic view point limits the range of scientific explanations. A challenging and informative book."
-RUTH HUBBARD, Harvard University, co-author of Exploding the Gene Myth
"This is a very important book that should be read by anyone concerned with debates about intelligence, homosexuality, mental illness, obesity, and a range of other issues in which public policy is in danger of being driven by simplistic and reac tionary scientism Kaplan clearly and compellingly explains the misleading and generally unsubstantiated nature of claims from human genetics."
-JOHN DUPRE, Birkbeck College, University of London, University of Exeter
"An especially important book at a time when a prevailing popular assumption is that 'It's all in the genes.' Documenting both the limits and dangers in genetic explanations, Kaplan makes a strong case for recognizing the complexity of behavior and the importance of environmental influences."
-DOROTHY NELKIN, New York University, co-author of The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon
"This is an engaging and lively book. Kaplan manages to combine a responsible and readable introduction to important theoretical issues behind genetics research with trenchant and well thought out criticisms. His recommendations for social policy are bound to stimulate debate among geneticists, philosophers, and policy analysts."
-STEPHEN M. DOWNES, University of Utah
In The Limits and Lies of Human Genetic Research: Dangers for Social Policy, Jonathan Kaplan weighs in on the controversial subject of the roles genes play in determining aspects of physical and behavioral human variation. Kaplan argues that genetic research is inadequate to support the conclusions that are often drawn in the media about the genetic causes of such human traits as intelligence, depression, obesity, criminality and violence, and homosexuality. His concern lies in the ways that conclusions about the "genetic causes" of certain human traits can be and do get used in legal, political, and social decision making. Limits and Lies makes the case that neither the information we have on genes nor on the environment is sufficient to explain the complex variations among humans.
DONATHAN MICHAEL KAPLAN is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
viii List of Figures and Boxes ix Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1
1 EXPLAINING DIFFERENCES
1 Differences That Make a Difference 3 The Ascension of the Genetic
6 The Six Arenas
8 A Few General Observations
CHAPTER 2
9 VARIETIES OF DETERMINISM
9 Determinism and Determinisms
10 Against Genetic Determinism?
13 PKU: The Traditional Accounts and the History: Determinism through the Back Door
CHAPTER 3
22 GENES AND CAUSATION
22 Techniques for Explaining Differences
23 Heritability: What It Is, What It (Doesn't) Mean, and Why It Won't Just Go Away
44 "Finding Genes": Linkage and Molecular Genetics
52 "Evolutionary Reasoning" and the Evolution of (Phenotypic) Variation
56 Conclusion: Explaining Variation in Complex Human Traits
CHAPTER 4
58 IQ AND SOCIAL POLICY
58 The Old and the New
60 Rats in a Maze: Learning Ability and Environmental Variation
63 Race and IQ
82 "Forget about Race ": SES, IQ, and Molecular Studies
86 Conclusion: Policy, Race and IQ, Genes, and Heritability
CHAPTER 5
89 CRIMINALITY AND VIOLENCE: THE BRAIN AND THE GENE
89 Crimes and Individuals
91 Genes and Violence: Heritability and Evolutionary Stories
94 Finding Causes: The Dream of Prevention through Recognition
96 The Individual as Criminal and Biology as Crime
98 Biology and Society: Violence and Social Action
102 Genetic Import
CHAPTER 6
104 GAY GENES AND THE REIFICATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY
104 Why Study Sexual Orientation?
107 The Heritability and Genetics of Homosexuality
110 The Contingency of Sexuality
115 Constructions and Scripting
120 Biology and Scripts
CHAPTER 7
122 ON THE MEDICALIZATION OF MOOD-AFFECTIVE DISORDERS: ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND THE HERITABILITY OF DEPRESSION AND TEMPERAMENT
122 Locating Depression
124 The Heritability and Heterogeneity of Affective Disorders
125 Affective Disorders and Temperament
121 On Treating Temperament
128 Depression as Disease: Treatment, Pharmacology, Genetics, and Temperament
132 Biochemistry, Genetics, and the Environment
CHAPTER 8
135 BORN TO BE FAT? CULTURE AND THE MEANING OF WEIGHT
135 Health and the Ideal Weight
138 Defining Obesity
140 Genetics and the Etiology of Obesity
143 The Social Construction of Ideal Weight 141 The Medicalization of Preference
CHAPTER 9
151 CONTRACT PREGNANCIES AND GENETIC PARENTHOOD
151 Parents, Genes, and the Law
152 Legal Parenthood, Contract Pregnancies, and the Genetic Connection
161 The Centrality of the Gene in Pregnancy
163 The Centrality of the Gene to Parenthood Problematized
168 Observations and Conclusions: Against Easy Answers
CHAPTER 10
170 THE CONCEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT
110 The Environment and the Status Quo
111 Environment, Organism, and the Modern Synthesis
113 Behavioral Genetics and the Conservative Environment
116 Why This Environment?
119 Organisms as Active, Environments as Unstable
183 Closing the Circles
184 Embracing Complexity
181 Notes
206 References
211 Legal Cases Cited
218 Works without Bylines
219 Index
Figures
30 Figure 3.1: Cooper and Zubek's Rats
33 Figure 3.2: A Simplified Reaction Norm
41 Figure 3.3: A Hypothetical Case: The "Consistently Dull Rat"
42 Figure 3.4: A Hypothetical Reaction Norm
47 Figure 3.5: Drosophila Viability: Two Variants Compared to the Average
49 Figure 3.6: Drosophila Viability: Four Variants, No Best Temperature
50 Figure 3.7: Drosophila Viability: Two Less Successful Variants Compared to the Average
71 Figure 4.1: A Hypothetical Reaction Norm: Canalization
76 Figure 4.2: A Hypothetical Reaction Norm: The Assumption of Additivity
Boxes
26 Box 3.1: Calculating Heritability: An Example 31 Box 3.2: Reaction Norms and Heritability 39 Box 3.3: The Locality of Heritability
