"..the science correspondent of the New York Times , wrote a front page article for the newspaper, “Updating Darwin on Behavior,” outlining sociobiology’s principal claim. In the older view, Rensberger wrote, the insect societies of bees and ants and the hierarchies of monkeys were seen as “evidence for the remarkable variety of nature.” Now, however, researchers were coming to a “more profound conclusion.” Beneath the variety there lay “common behavioral patterns governed by the genes and shaped by Darwinian evolution.
..there is a book that cries out to be written -- a debunking of the whole “genomania” upon which sociobiology was largely based. Perhaps we should think of it as the astrology of the modern academy, with the fashionable microcosm now replacing the heavenly spheres. Just as mysterious emanations from celestial objects were once thought to shape character (with a role reserved for free will), so today mysterious emanations from molecular objects are thought to do the same (with a role reserved for the environment)."
I never understood the “genomania” approach, it's pretty clear that in science and technology we don't limit ourselves to the information contained in our genes, I don't see why they should have any weight either in morals or social organization.
I understand the value as descriptive tools, but even in social behaviors that may be very influenced by genes, once you are aware of those patterns they are very easy to detect and choose whether you decide to follow them or not, so even if we were 100% determined by our genes, once we learn the way in which we are determined we would be in the position to move in a different direction. Genes can't help us decide what to do, we will have to make the choice by ourselves.
Yes, see also "sociobiology", http://www.firstthings.com/article/2001/01/against-sociobiol...
"..the science correspondent of the New York Times , wrote a front page article for the newspaper, “Updating Darwin on Behavior,” outlining sociobiology’s principal claim. In the older view, Rensberger wrote, the insect societies of bees and ants and the hierarchies of monkeys were seen as “evidence for the remarkable variety of nature.” Now, however, researchers were coming to a “more profound conclusion.” Beneath the variety there lay “common behavioral patterns governed by the genes and shaped by Darwinian evolution.
..there is a book that cries out to be written -- a debunking of the whole “genomania” upon which sociobiology was largely based. Perhaps we should think of it as the astrology of the modern academy, with the fashionable microcosm now replacing the heavenly spheres. Just as mysterious emanations from celestial objects were once thought to shape character (with a role reserved for free will), so today mysterious emanations from molecular objects are thought to do the same (with a role reserved for the environment)."