Abuses of Biology

"The realm of nature is so vast," writes Howard L. Kaye

(Sociology, Franklin and Marshall College) "and Darwinian fables so

easily constructed that virtually any cause can find its mascot,

any group its biological totem." In his article, "The Uses and

Abuses of Biology" ( Wilson Quarterly , 11 (1): 80-93, 1987), Kaye

discusses the inevitable influence of personal desires and world

views on biological science. He writes:

In spite of the claims to greater rigor and objectivity by which

contemporary molecular biologists and sociobiologists have tried

to distinguish their writings from those of the Spencers and

Huxleys of the past, their efforts, too, constitute scientific

mythologies (p. 88).

Kaye concludes:

...seemingly extrascientific elements may, at times, prove

invaluable to the scientific enterprise. Yet, however much the

triumphs of science may seem to confirm the ideas and interests

that helped to inspire them and to encourage their extension into

myth, they cannot grant to such social and philosophical

speculations the status of objective, empirical science (p. 93).

Keep that in mind the next time you read E.O. Wilson, or Fransic

Crick, or Jacques Monod (among others)--and remember to sift the

science from the philosophical speculation.

 

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