Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature

This book was published in 1984. Funnily enough, 24 years later and despite important scientific advances, "Not in our Genes" remains as fresh, interesting and fascinating today as it was back then. If you want to develop your critical consciousness, to learn to think for yourself, not to depend on ready-made opinions and to find the other side or even an alternative to the predominant story about evolution, biological determinism and the like, read this book. It is enlightening and already a classic. You won't regret it.

I read this book for a college human nature class and found it highly enlightening. I have long been an opponent to the rigid structure of the nature v. nurture argument, and have thus far found few (if any) serious intellectual scientific works to clearly articulate other possible explanations for why we are the way we are. Kudos to the authors of Not in our Genes for presenting a possible alternative to the norm. Read it and see whatcha think.

As a lecturer and writer in critical psychology, this book is a key resource in highlighting the way in which psychological enquiry is shaped by the context in which such enquiry takes place. In particular, it shows the weaknesses of the myth of the objectivity of science as applied to psychology. This shouldn't be too surprising, as only someone with their head deeply in the sand, or determined to justify certain practices by recourse to claiming objectivity, could have missed the volume of work on the lack of objectivity in psychological science.

Lewontin, Rose, and Kamin have expressed in clear language the problems of research in psychology and biology. They expose the social function of psychological, biological, and cultural reductionism as well as exploring the limits of their internal logics and validities. Needless to say, those caught up in the mainstream of traditional psychological and biological theory will protest, but in doing so will only betray the strong "interests" which shape and color their so-called dispassionate and objective endeavors -- which is part of what this book will detail. This book allows its readers to move outside the box of their over-learned scientistic practices; and it asks us to think about what we are doing when we do scientific research, its social implications, and its socio-economic determinants. I found this challenge compelling and enjoyable.

Lewontin, Rose and Kamin -- an evolutionary geneticist, neurobiologist and a psychologist -- provide the scientific and historic basis which allows one to drive a Mack truck through the holes in the arguments of biological determinism. Although their credentials are weighty and their science precise, the book is not only very readable - it's downright entertaining. After all, reading about the alleged "data" collected by those bent on proving that biology is god through identical twin studies is downright hysterical and should be a cautionary tale known to every student of science. The references provided by the authors should also provide further good reading. This is a book to own and share.