AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature by R.C.; Rose, Steven and Kamin, Leon Lewontin ISBN: 0-394-50817-3 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1984 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3.7 (10 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Glad I read it
Comment: I hadn't read much at all dealing with this subject matter but am glad I read the book. It points out the flawed nature of (some) science research in this area. In this the authors did a good job. However they didn't really influence me that much as to what extent our genes are responsible for what we become. I may reread the book

Rating: 2
Summary: Attacking a Straw Man
Comment: This book does a fine job of dispelling the view the genes solely determine cognitive ability. The problem is that virtually no researchers in the fields of differntial psychology or psychometrics are arguing this position. According to respected experts (e.g., Thomas Bouchard, Arthur Jensen, and Linda Gottfredson), the answer to the question "nature or nurture?" is nature and nurture. The available evidence indicates that both play an important role. The authors of this book are therefore attacking a straw man for ideological reasons.

The critique of this issue in Hernstein's and Murray's "The Bell Curve" is much more valuable for anyone with an open mind. But if you've already been baptized into the cult of egalitarianism, read and enjoy.

Rating: 5
Summary: The Classic Critique of Sociobiology
Comment: This book provides the best available introduction to the most outstanding objections to sociobiology. Even those sympathetic with the Dawkins/Pinker/Wilson camp should read it, if only to familiarize themselves with the arguments of their opposition.

One thing that's particularly notable about the book is that its basic points remain virtually intellectually unscathed after 20 years. Sociobiologists (and now evolutionary psychologists) have responded to its valid scientific critique of their discipline (faith?) not by addressing the arguments themselves, but by attacking the politics of some of this critique's proponents.

Still, it would be nice to see an updated edition. Also, both Steve Rose's Lifelines and he and Hilary Rose's Alas, Poor Darwin make good companions to this book.

Similar Books:

	Title: Biology As Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA by Richard C. Lewontin ISBN: 0060975199 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 January, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.00
	Title: The Dialectical Biologist by Richard Levins, Richard Lewontin ISBN: 067420283X Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1987 List Price(USD): $26.50
	Title: On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson ISBN: 067463442X Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1988 List Price(USD): $18.95
	Title: It Ain't Necessarily So: The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions by Richard Lewontin ISBN: 0940322951 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95
	Title: Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition by Edward Osborne Wilson ISBN: 0674002350 Publisher: Belknap Press Pub. Date: 04 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $32.50