Biology As Ideology
About this ebook
Lewontin writes in this collection of essays, which began their life as CBC Radio's Massey Lectures Series for 1990: "Scientists do not begin life as scientists, after all, but as social beings immersed in a family, a state, a productive structure, and they view nature through a lens that has been molded by their social experience ... Science, like the Church before it, is a supremely social institution, reflecting and reinforcing the dominant values and vices of society at each historical epoch."
In Biology as Ideology Lewontin examines the false paths down which modern scientific ideology has led us. By admitting science's limitations, he helps us rediscover the richness of nature—and appreciate the real value of science.
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About the author
R. C. Lewontin (1929–2021) was born and raised in New York City. In 1951 he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Harvard University, followed by a master’s degree in mathematical statistics, and a doctorate in zoology at Columbia University. Lewontin went on to teach at North Carolina State University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Chicago. A leading geneticist, he was well known for his work in population and experimental genetics, his interest in new technology, and his critiques concerning aspects of neo-Darwinism. Lewontin was the author of many books including The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change, It Ain’t Necessarily So, and The Triple Helix, and co-author of Not in Our Genes (with Steven Rose and Leon J. Kamin), The Dialectical Biologist, and Biology Under the Influence (with Richard Levins). Lewontin was also a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. He was formerly the Alexander Agassiz Research Professor of Zoology and Professor of Biology at Harvard University.
