Biology under the influence : dialectical essays on ecology, agriculture, and health

How do we understand the world? While some look to the heavens for intelligent design, others argue that it is determined by information encoded in DNA. Science serves as an important activity for uncovering the processes and operations of nature, but it is also immersed in a social context where ideology influences the questions we ask and how we approach the material world. **Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on the Coevolution of Nature and Society** breaks from the confirms of determinism, offering a dialectical analysis for comprehending a dynamic social and natural world. In **Biology Under the Influence**, Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins provide a devastating critique of genetic determinism and reductionism within science while exploring a broad range of issues including the nature of science, biology, evolution, the environment, pubic health, and dialectics, They dismantle the ideology that attempts to naturalize social inequalities, unveil the alienation of science and nature, and illustrate how a dialectical position serves as a basis for grappling with historical developments and a world characterized by change. **Biology Under the Influence** brings together the illuminating essays of two prominent scientists who work to demystify and empower the public's understanding of science and nature. Cover 1 Table of Contents 6 Dedication 8 Introduction 10 Part One: 14 1. The End of Natural History? 14 2. The Return of Old Diseases and the Appearance of New Ones 18 3. False Dichotomies 24 4. Chance and Necessity 28 5. Organism and Environment 32 6. The Biological and the Social 36 7. How Different Are Natural and Social Science? 40 8. Does Anything New Ever Happen? 44 9. Life on Other Worlds 48 10. Are We Programmed? 54 11. Evolutionary Psychology 60 12. Let the Numbers Speak 66 13. The Politics of Averages 72 14. Schmalhausen's Law 76 15. A Program for Biology 82 Part Two: 88 16. Ten Propositions on Science and Antiscience 88 17. Dialectics and Systems Theory 102 18. Aspects of Whole and Parts in Population Biology 126 19. Strategies of Abstraction 150 20. The Butterfly ex Machina 168 21. Educating the Intuition to Cope with Complexity 184 22. Preparing for Uncertainty 200 Part Three: 220 23. Greypeace 220 24. Genes, Environment, and Organisms 222 25. The Dream of the Human Genome 236 26. Does Culture Evolve? 268 27. Is Capitalism a Disease?: The Crisis in U.S. Public Health 298 28. Science and Progress: Seven Developmentalist Myths in Agriculture 322 29. The Maturing of Capitalist Agriculture: Farmer as Proletarian 330 30. How Cuba Is Going Ecological 344 31. Living the 11th Thesis 366 Notes 376 Index 392 A 392 B 392 C 393 D 394 E 394 F 395 G 395 H 396 I 396 K 397 L 397 M 397 N 398 O 398 P 398 Q 399 R 399 S 400 T 400 U 401 V 401 W 401 Y 401 Z 401

How do we understand the world? While some look to the heavens for intelligent design, others argue that it is determined by information encoded in DNA. Science serves as an important activity for uncovering the processes and operations of nature, but it is also immersed in a social context where ideology influences the questions we ask and how we approach the material world. Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on the Coevolution of Nature and Society breaks from the confirms of determinism, offering a dialectical analysis for comprehending a dynamic social and natural world.

In Biology Under the Influence, Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins provide a devastating critique of genetic determinism and reductionism within science while exploring a broad range of issues including the nature of science, biology, evolution, the environment, pubic health, and dialectics, They dismantle the ideology that attempts to naturalize social inequalities, unveil the alienation of science and nature, and illustrate how a dialectical position serves as a basis for grappling with historical developments and a world characterized by change. Biology Under the Influence brings together the illuminating essays of two prominent scientists who work to demystify and empower the public's understanding of science and nature.

Summary:How do we understand the world? While some look to the heavens for intelligent design, others argue that it is determined by information encoded in DNA. Science serves as an important activity for uncovering the processes and operations of nature, but it is also immersed in a social context where ideology influences the questions we ask and how we approach the material world. Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on the Coevolution of Nature and Society breaks from the confirms of determinism, offering a dialectical analysis for comprehending a dynamic social and natural world. OCLC Provides a critique of genetic determinism and reductionism within science while exploring a range of issues including the nature of science, biology, evolution, the environment, public health, and dialectics. This work brings together the essays of two prominent scientists who work to empower the public's understanding of science and nature. "Provides a devastating critique of genetic determinism and reductionism within science while exploring a broad range of issues including the nature of science, biology, evolution, the environment, public health, and dialectics." -- Monthlyreview.org