Criticisms of Genetic Reductionism Within Science
Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene
popularised a theory that the behaviour of whole organisms can be understood in
terms of genes ‘seeking’ to reproduce themselves. The organisms themselves can
be seen merely as ‘vehicles’ for the behaviour of genes. This ingenious way of
thinking does explain certain elements of behaviour in certain organisms, but
it does not do justice to evolution as a whole. Natural selection ‘sees a
five-foot tall plant as a five-foot-tall plant, not as a five-foot-tall plant
with genotype g ... phenotype will
screen off any intrinsic property of the gene (or the genotype) from its level
of reproductive success.’Or as Brian Goodwin colourfully puts it: ‘As the spots disappear, so does the
leopard.’
We are very far from being able to say that
a particular gene directly codes for a particular human behaviour. Even
behaviour with a strong genetic component is almost certain to derive from
interaction between the products of many different genes. At the very most all
we can say is that particular genes may have some effect on individuals’
predisposition to the learning of some life-patterns rather than others.
Email
link | Feedback | Contributed by: Dr.
Christopher Southgate
Source: God, Humanity and the
Cosmos (T&T Clark, 1999)
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