E-Book Overview
If everyone now agrees that human traits arise not from nature or nurture but from the interaction of nature and nurture, why does the "nature versus nurture" debate persist? In Beyond Versus, James Tabery argues that the persistence stems from a century-long struggle to understand the interaction of nature and nurture -- a struggle to define what the interaction of nature and nurture is, how it should be investigated, and what counts as evidence for it.
Tabery examines past episodes in the nature versus nurture debates, offers a contemporary philosophical perspective on them, and considers the future of research on the interaction of nature and nurture. From the eugenics controversy of the 1930s and the race and IQ controversy of the 1970s to the twenty-first-century debate over the causes of depression, Tabery argues, the polarization in these discussions can be attributed to what he calls an "explanatory divide" -- a disagreement over how explanation works in science, which in turn has created two very different concepts of interaction. Drawing on recent developments in the philosophy of science, Tabery offers a way to bridge this explanatory divide and these different concepts integratively. Looking to the future, Tabery evaluates the ethical issues that surround genetic testing for genes implicated in interactions of nature and nurture, pointing to what the future does (and does not) hold for a science that continues to make headlines and raise controversy.
E-Book Content
Beyond Versus
Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology Kim Sterelny and Robert A. Wilson, Series Editors Beyond Versus: The Struggle to Understand the Interaction of Nature and Nurture, James Tabery, 2014 Investigating the Psychological World: Scientific Method in the Behavioral Sciences, Brian D. Haig, 2014 Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life, revised edition, Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb, 2014 Cooperation and its Evolution, Kim Sterelny, Richard Joyce, Brett Calcott, and Ben Fraser, editors, 2013 Ingenious Genes: How Gene Regulation Networks Evolve to Control Development, Roger Sansom, 2011 Yuck! The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust, Daniel Kelly, 2011 Laws, Mind, and Free Will, Steven Horst, 2011 Perplexities of Consciousness, Eric Switzgebel, 2011 Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement, Nicholas Agar, 2010 Color Ontology and Color Science, Jonathan Cohen and Mohan Matthen, editors, 2010 The Extended Mind, Richard Menary, editor, 2010 The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature, Scott Atran and Douglas Medin, 2008 Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic, Russell T. Hurlburt and Eric Schwitzgebel, 2007 Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology, Robert C. Richardson, 2007 The Evolution of Morality, Richard Joyce, 2006
Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life, Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb, 2005 Molecular Models of Life: Philosophical Papers on Molecular Biology, Sahotra Sarkar, 2005 The Mind Incarnate, Lawrence A. Shapiro, 2004 Organisms and Artifacts: Design in Nature and Elsewhere, Tim Lewens, 2004 Seeing and Visualizing: It’s Not What You Think, Zenon W. Pylyshyn, 2003 Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered, Bruce H. Weber and David J. Depew, editors, 2003 The New Phrenology: The Limits of Localizing Cognitive Processes in the Brain, William R. Uttal, 2001 Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution, Susan Oyama, Paul E. Griffiths, and Russell D. Gray, editors, 2001 Coherence in Thought and Action, Paul Thagard, 2000
Beyond Versus The Struggle to Understand the Interaction of Nature and Nurture
James Tabery
The MIT Press Cambridge, Massa