Biological determinism

BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

2009

According to contemporary scientific thought , biological determinism widely knows also as genetic determinism is a theory that our genes determine our behavior , virtually every aspect of our lives and our personality . Throughout the late '50 's and '60 's , the domain of molecular biology was largely restricted to the field of animal and human physiology , where it was very successful in locating , sequencing and synthesizing numerous disease-causing genes . The horrified response to Nazi "science , viewed as the apotheosis of turn-of-the-century eugenics , left the dominant discourse on human

behavior to psychology (mostly behavioral ) and psychoanalysis (mostly ego psychology ) prior to the 1970 's . These disciplines promoted a view of the mutability of human life and activity , and encouraged government and corporate sponsorship of programs to ameliorate social problems such as racism , poverty , and poor education . But as the 60 's came to a close , following the social upheavals of the anti-war , black power , and feminist movements (to name a few , the domain of molecular biology expanded beyond the physiological , and a resurgence of claims for the biological determinism of the human condition began

An important moment in this pendulum swing was the publication in 1969 of Arthur R . Jensens 's How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement ? in the Harvard Educational Review . Jensen 's article did not go uncontested it was the center of a huge storm of controversy (Kevles , 1995 . Nevertheless , it marked the beginning of a new surge of research into the genetic origins...