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Reductionism -- understanding complex processes by breaking
them into simpler elements -- dominates scientific thinking around the world and
has certainly proved a powerful tool, leading to major discoveries in every field
of science. But reductionism can be taken too far, especially in the life sciences,
where sociobiological thinking has bordered on biological determinism. Thus popular
science writers such as Richard Dawkins, author of the highly influential The
Selfish Gene, can write that human beings are just "robot vehicles blindly
programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes." Indeed, for
many in science, genes have become the fundamental unit for understanding human
existence: genes determine every aspect of our lives, from personal success to
existential despair: genes for health and illness, genes for criminality, violence,
and sexual orientation. Others would say that this is reductionism with a vengeance. In
Lifelines, biologist Steven Rose offers a powerful alternative to the ultra-Darwinist
claims of Dawkins, E. O. Wilson, Daniel Dennett, and others. Rose argues against
an extreme reductionist approach that would make the gene the key to understanding
human nature, in favor of a more complex and richer vision of life. He urges instead
that we focus on the organism and in particular on the organism's lifeline: the
trajectory it takes through time and space. Our personal lifeline, Rose points
out, is unique -- even identical twins, with identical genes at birth, will differ
over time. These differences are obviously not embedded in our genes, but come
about through our developmental trajectory in which genes, as part of the biochemical
orchestra of trillions of cells in each human body, have an important part --
but only a part -- to play. To illustrate this idea, Rose examines recent research
in modern biology, and especially two disciplines -- genetics (which looks at
the impact of genes on form) and developmental biology (which examines the interaction
between the organism and the environment) -- and he explores new ideas on biological
complexity proposed by scientists such as Stuart Kauffman. He shows how our lifelines
are constructed through the interplay of physical forces -- such as the intrinsic
chemistry of lipids and proteins, and the self-organizing and stabilizing properties
of complex metabolic webs -- and he reaches a startling conclusion: that organisms
are active players in their own fate, not simply the playthings of the gods, nature,
or the inevitable workings out of gene-driven natural selection. The organism
is both the weaver and the pattern it weaves. Lifelines
will be a rallying point for all who seek an alternative to the currently fashionable,
deeply deterministic accounts which dominate popular science writing and, in fact,
crowd the pages of some of the major scientific journals. Based on solid, state-of-the-art
research, it not only makes important contributions to our understanding of Darwin
and natural selection, but will swing the pendulum back to a richer, more complex
view of human nature and of life.
Steven Rose is Professor of Biology and
Director of the Brain and Behaviour Research group at Britain's
Open University, where he researches the molecular mechanisms
of memory. He won the 1993 British Science Book Prize for
The Making of Memory, and is also the author of The
Conscious Brain and Not in our Genes.
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