The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nurture

In this powerful critique, the esteemed historian and philosopher of science Evelyn Fox Keller addresses the nature-nurture debates, including the persistent disputes regarding the roles played by genes and the environment in determining individual traits and behavior. Keller is interested in both how an oppositional “versus” came to be inserted between nature and nurture, and how the distinction on which that opposition depends, the idea that nature and nurture are separable, came to be taken for granted. How, she asks, did the illusion of a space between nature and nurture become entrenched in our thinking, and why is it so tenacious? Keller reveals that the assumption that the influences of nature and nurture can be separated is neither timeless nor universal, but rather a notion that emerged in Anglo-American culture in the late nineteenth century. She shows that the seemingly clear-cut nature-nurture debate is riddled with incoherence. It encompasses many disparate questions knitted together into an indissoluble tangle, and it is marked by a chronic ambiguity in language. There is little consensus about the meanings of terms such as nature, nurture, gene, and environment. Keller suggests that contemporary genetics can provide a more appropriate, precise, and useful vocabulary, one that might help put an end to the confusion surrounding the nature-nurture controversy.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Nature and Nurture as Alternatives 2. Changing the Question to One that Does Make Sense—From Trait to Trait Difference 3. From Individuals to Populations 4. What's to Be Done? Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Evelyn Fox Keller (1936-2023) was Emerita Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was the author of numerous books, including Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines; The Century of the Gene; Reflections on Gender and Science; and A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock. She has been awarded many academic and professional honors, including a Blaise Pascal Research Chair by the PrÉfecture de la RÉgion D'Ile-de-France for 2005–07, membership in the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Review :
"Evelyn Fox Keller's diagnosis of prevalent confusions in our thinking about nature and nurture is so lucid, informed, and sensitive that it is tempting to insist that scientists, journalists, philosophers, and policy makers who intend to talk about 'nature and nurture' should be required to demonstrate their mastery of her arguments before their thoughts are let loose on society."oPhilip Kitcher, author of Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith "I know of no other publication that offers so concise and cogent an account of what 'nature versus nurture' refers to. Evelyn Fox Keller is at her best dissecting the assumptions and histories that have come to shape a particular version of biology, genes, and life."oSarah Franklin, author of Dolly Mixtures: The Remaking of Genealogy