Vaulting Ambition : Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature

Rating:
Summary: A Critique of Sociobiology
Review: In a field of much debate and little substance, this is one of the most useful and cogent critiques of sociobiology of Lumsden and Wilson, with a very detailed examination of the limitations in their mathematical modelling.

Rating:
Summary: Are Narratives based on political assumptions?
Review: Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature published in 1985. It seems to me that Kitcher's book presents a narrative perspective that is political. It describes Socio-Biology as politically oriented (conservative) and so the book appears politically oriented (liberal).

Some of my notes so far:

p. 3 When incorrect scientific claims affect social policy "the standards of evidence and of self-criticism must be extremely high."
p. 4 a critique of E. O. Wilson by Allen 75 - "supposedly objective scientific approach in reality conceals political assumptions."
p. 5 Wilson's defense "flaw is...the assumption that scientific discovery should be judged on its possible political consequences rather than on whether it is true or false." (1983a, p.40)
Opponents say:
p.8 No evidence to support genetic determinism -- especially a case where the hasty acceptance of hypotheses spawns a particular research program that threatens to yield conclusions both socially harmful and ill supported...

Theme of the book: "The dispute about human sociobiology is a dispute about evidence."

p. 10 Scott Fitzgerald in the end of The Great Gatsby -- "carelessness that results in the destruction or diminution of human life is unforgivable." Even if the aspirations of people are dashed by biological determinism does not mean biodeterminism is wrong. In fact, what would it have to do with it at all?

Wilson's position reflects the increasing success of science and technology to discover mechanisms of life, behavior, and genetics -- bio-chemistry and neuroscience -- all of which expands our ability to understand ourselves. Kitcher basically attempts to create a Straw Man argument to weaken the credibility of this position. Each new discovery strenthens Wilson's view and weakens Kitcher's.

p. 22 Most often fight over "aggression, social stratification, and differences"
p.32 "we want to use the same language to communicate with each other. It is an accident of history that we speak English and not Chinese." (I would argue in important ways this is not true."

p. 37-38 Darwin's four principles:
1. individuals vary, 2. compete with one another, 3. variable fitness means only some reproduce, and 4. next generation inherits characteristics of the successful/:. Natural Selection.