DOCSLIB.ORG

Making Sense of Heritability

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Making Sense of Heritability Making Sense of Heritability In this book, Neven Sesardic defends the view that it is both possible and useful to measure the separate contributions of heredity and environ- ment to the explanation of human psychological differences. He critically examines the view – very widely accepted by scientists, social scientists and philosophers of science – that heritability estimates have no causal implications and are devoid of any interest. In a series of clearly writ- ten chapters he introduces the reader to the problems and subjects the arguments to close philosophical scrutiny. His conclusion is that anti- heritability arguments are based on conceptual confusions and misun- derstandings of behavior genetics. His book is a fresh, original, and com- pelling intervention in a very contentious debate. neven sesardic is Associate Professor in the Department of Philoso- phy at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His areas of specialization are philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind. cambridge studies in philosophy and biology General Editor Michael Ruse Florida State University Advisory Board Michael Donoghue Yale University Jean Gayon University of Paris Jonathan Hodge University of Leeds Jane Maienschein Arizona State University Jesus ´ Moster´ın Instituto de Filosof´ıa (Spanish Research Council) Elliott Sober University of Wisconsin Alfred I. Tauber The Immune Self: Theory or Metaphor? Elliott Sober From a Biological Point of View Robert Brandon Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology Peter Godfrey-Smith Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature William A. Rottschaefer The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency Sahotra Sarkar Genetics and Reductionism Jean Gayon Darwinism’s Struggle for Survival Jane Maienschein and Michael Ruse (eds.) Biology and the Foundation of Ethics Jack Wilson Biological Individuality Richard Creath and Jane Maienschein (eds.) Biology and Epistemology Alexander Rosenberg Darwinism in Philosophy, Social Science, and Policy Peter Beurton, Raphael Falk, and Hans-Jorg ¨ Rheinberger (eds.) The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution David Hull Science and Selection James G. Lennox Aristotle’s Philosophy of Biology Marc Ereshefsky The Poverty of the Linnaean Hierarchy Kim Sterelny The Evolution of Agency and Other Essays William S. Cooper The Evolution of Reason Peter McLaughlin What Functions Explain Steven Hecht Orzack and Elliott Sober (eds.) Adaptationism and Optimality Bryan G. Norton Searching for Sustainability Sandra D. Mitchell Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism Greg Cooper The Science of the Struggle for Existence Joseph LaPorte Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change Jason Scott Robert Embryology, Epigenesis, and Evolution William F. Harms Information and Meaning in Evolutionary Processes Marcel Weber Philosophy of Experimental Biology Markku Oksanen and Juhani Pietorinen Philosophy and Biodiversity Richard Burian The Epistemology of Development, Evolution, and Genetics Ron Amondson The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought Sahotra Sarkar Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy Making Sense of Heritability NEVEN SESARDIC Lingnan University, Hong Kong cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521828185 © Neven Sesardic 2005 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2005 isbn-13 978-0-511-13274-2 eBook (NetLibrary) isbn-10 0-511-13274-3 eBook (NetLibrary) isbn-13 978-0-521-82818-5 hardback isbn-10 0-521-82818-x hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. The denial of genetically based psychological differences is the kind of sophisti- cated error normally accessible only to persons having Ph.D. degrees. David Lykken Contents List of figures page xi Acknowledgments xii Introduction1 1 The nature–nurture debate: a premature burial? 11 1.1 A convenient jingle of words 11 1.2 No fair hearing for Francis Galton 16 1.3 Heritability 101 18 1.4 Can monomorphic traits be heritable? 28 1.5 Philosophers at work: caveat lector! 33 2 A tangle of interactions: separating genetic and environmental influences 48 2.1 Two concepts of interaction 48 2.2 The rectangle analogy 51 2.3 Lewontin against ANOVA 56 2.4 Non-additivity 60 2.5 Locality 75 2.6 Causal irrelevance 81 2.7 The second look at interactions 86 3 Lost in correlations? Direct and indirect genetic causes 89 3.1 The conceptual route: a Pickwickian notion? 90 3.2 The methodological route: tracing the paths of causality 105 3.3 The sociologist’s fallacy 121 4 From individuals to groups: genetics and race 127 4.1 The “master argument” 128 ix Contents 4.2 VE theories 138 4.3 X-factor theories 140 4.4 Unfair to facts 142 4.5 The hereditarian strikes back 148 5 Genes and malleability 153 5.1 Genetic and environmental causation 153 5.2 PKU 157 5.3 Local modifiability and modifiability “in principle” 162 5.4 Comparing apples and oranges 169 5.5 A clumsy attempt to appease the critics 177 5.6 Limits to egalitarianism 178 6 Science and sensitivity 183 6.1 Mistaken because politically motivated 184 6.2 Politically motivated because mistaken 186 6.3 Consequential fallacy 193 6.4 Double standards 201 6.5 From “is” to “ought,” non-fallaciously 208 6.6 Looking into the abyss 212 6.7 From groups to individuals 217 6.8 Fair, therefore biased? 224 7 Conclusion 229 References 235 Index 259 x Figures 1.1 A simple illustration of heritability page 19 1.2a A monomorphic trait (genetic) 31 1.2b A monomorphic trait (environmental) 31 2.1 Common sense interaction – yes, statistical interaction – no 50 2.2 Statistical interaction: no main effects 52 2.3 Rectangle area, length and width 54 2.4 Bricks and mortar 59 2.5 A “not atypical case”? 64 2.6 G–E interaction in rats 66 2.7 Testing for interactions 72 3.1a Attractiveness and IQ 118 3.1b Heritability without G–E correlation 119 3.1c G–E correlation with zero heritability 120 5.1a Is PKU 100% heritable? Not any more. 159 5.1b Is PKU 100% heritable? Yes, it still is. 160 5.2 Confusion about range 170 5.3 Whose heritability, whose plasticity? 173 6.1 The taxicab problem and Bayes’ theorem 219 6.2a A terrorist suspect (Group A) 221 6.2b A terrorist suspect (Group B) 221 xi Acknowledgments While working on this book, I presented drafts of some chapters on differ- ent occasions and received useful feedback. I gave talks at Lingnan Uni- versity, Konrad Lorenz Institute, the University of Rijeka, the University of Braunschweig, the University of Pittsburgh, Duke University, the Uni- versity of Hannover, the University of Munich, the meeting of the British Society for Philosophy of Science in Glasgow (July 2002), the eighteenth biennial meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association in Milwaukee (November 2002), and the annual conference of the Australasian Associ- ation for Philosophy in Adelaide (July 2003). I also presented some of the material in Alex Rosenberg’s graduate seminar in philosophy of biology at Duke University in April 2004, which was a valuable opportunity to test my ideas and have very stimulating discussions. I am very grateful to my colleagues at Lingnan University for approving my request for a free semester at the crucial, final stage of my writing. My research assistant Mr. Chin Po San helped a lot with literature searches and with preparing the bibliography. The work on this book was sup- ported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China (Project No. LU3005/01H), by an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation research grant, and by two Lingnan research grants (DA03A5 and DR04B6). I am grateful to the University of Chicago Press for permission to use the material from my two papers published in Philosophy of Science (c 2000 and 2003 by the Philosophy of Science Association). I would like to thank Michael Ruse, the editor of the series Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology, for his support for the project. I ben- efited a lot from comments on earlier drafts that I received from the xii Acknowledgments following colleagues: Thomas J. Bouchard, Arthur Jensen, Noretta Koertge, Stefan Linquist, Paisley Livingston, John Loehlin, David Lubin- ski, Samir Okasha, Katie Pleasance, Robert Plomin, Nils Roll-Hansen, and Terry Sullivan. It should not be assumed that any of these people agree with the basic claims defended in this book. xiii Introduction What is heritability? The heritability of a trait in a given population tells us what proportion of differences in that trait is due to genetic differ- ences. It provides an answer to the main question in the nature–nurture controversy. Heritability can be calculated both for physical and psychological char- acteristics but it generates controversy mainly in the context of human behavioral traits like intelligence, personality differences, criminality, etc. For this reason I will focus here only on discussions of heritability in psy- chology (i.e., human behavior genetics). Criticisms of heritability claims in this area are frequently based on a curious mixture of methodologi- cal objections and warnings about political motives and/or implications of this research. A systematic study that would try to disentangle all the argu- mentative threads that are often run together in this contentious debate was long overdue. So this book was simply waiting to be written.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SOHASKY-DISSERTATION-2017.Pdf (2.074Mb)
    DIFFERENTIAL MINDS: MASS INTELLIGENCE TESTING AND RACE SCIENCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Kate E. Sohasky A dissertation submitted to the Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Baltimore, Maryland May 9, 2017 © Kate E. Sohasky All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Historians have argued that race science and eugenics retreated following their discrediting in the wake of the Second World War. Yet if race science and eugenics disappeared, how does one explain their sudden and unexpected reemergence in the form of the neohereditarian work of Arthur Jensen, Richard Herrnstein, and Charles Murray? This dissertation argues that race science and eugenics did not retreat following their discrediting. Rather, race science and eugenics adapted to changing political and social climes, at times entering into states of latency, throughout the twentieth century. The transnational history of mass intelligence testing in the twentieth century demonstrates the longevity of race science and eugenics long after their discrediting. Indeed, the tropes of race science and eugenics persist today in the modern I.Q. controversy, as the dissertation shows. By examining the history of mass intelligence testing in multiple nations, this dissertation presents narrative of the continuity of race science and eugenics throughout the twentieth century. Dissertation Committee: Advisors: Angus Burgin and Ronald G. Walters Readers: Louis Galambos, Nathaniel Comfort, and Adam Sheingate Alternates: François Furstenberg
    [Show full text]
  • The New Eugenics: Black Hyper-Incarceration and Human Abatement
    social sciences $€ £ ¥ Article The New Eugenics: Black Hyper-Incarceration and Human Abatement James C. Oleson Department of Sociology, The University of Auckland, Level 9, HSB Building, 10 Symonds Street, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand; [email protected]; Tel.: +64-937-375-99 Academic Editor: Bryan L. Sykes Received: 14 June 2016; Accepted: 20 October 2016; Published: 25 October 2016 Abstract: In the early twentieth century, the eugenics movement exercised considerable influence over domestic US public policy. Positive eugenics encouraged the reproduction of “fit” human specimens while negative eugenics attempted to reduce the reproduction of “unfit” specimens like the “feebleminded” and the criminal. Although eugenics became a taboo concept after World War II, it did not disappear. It was merely repackaged. Incarceration is no longer related to stated eugenic goals, yet incapacitation in prisons still exerts a prophylactic effect on human reproduction. Because minorities are incarcerated in disproportionately high numbers, the prophylactic effect of incarceration affects them most dramatically. In fact, for black males, the effect of hyper-incarceration might be so great as to depress overall reproduction rates. This article identifies some of the legal and extralegal variables that would be relevant for such an analysis and calls for such an investigation. Keywords: eugenics; race; ethnicity; incarceration; prison; prophylactic effect “[W]hen eugenics reincarnates this time, it will not come through the front door, as with Hitler’s Lebensborn project. Instead, it will come by the back door...” ([1], p. x). 1. Introduction At year-end 2014, more than 2.2 million people were incarcerated in US jails and prisons [2], confined at a rate of 698 persons per 100,000 [3].
    [Show full text]
  • The Black-White Test Score Gap: an Introduction
    CHRISTOPHER JENCKS MEREDITH PHILLIPS 1 The Black-White Test Score Gap: An Introduction FRICAN AMERICANS currently score lower than A European Americans on vocabulary, reading, and mathematics tests, as well as on tests that claim to measure scholastic apti- tude and intelligence.1 This gap appears before children enter kindergarten (figure 1-1), and it persists into adulthood. It has narrowed since 1970, but the typical American black still scores below 75 percent of American whites on most standardized tests.2 On some tests the typical American black scores below more than 85 percent of whites.3 1. We are indebted to Karl Alexander, William Dickens, Ronald Ferguson, James Flynn, Frank Furstenberg, Arthur Goldberger, Tom Kane, David Levine, Jens Ludwig, Richard Nisbett, Jane Mansbridge, Susan Mayer, Claude Steele, and Karolyn Tyson for helpful criticisms of earlier drafts. But we did not make all the changes they suggested, and they are in no way responsible for our conclusions. 2. These statistics also imply, of course, that a lot of blacks score above a lot of whites. If the black and white distributions are normal and have the same standard deviation, and if the black-white gap is one (black or white) standard deviation, then when we compare a randomly selected black to a randomly selected white, the black will score higher than the white about 24 percent of the time. If the black-white gap is 0.75 rather than 1.00 standard deviations, a randomly selected black will score higher than a randomly selected white about 30 percent of the time.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Chapter 1.6. Evolution While You Are Watching Chapter 1.6
    Chapter 1.6. Evolution While You Are Watching Chapter 1.6 describes more or less direct observations of evolution. Although Macroevolution which results in really profound changes of living beings occurs too slowly for such observations, substantial changes in a lineage can and do occur at the time scale of thousands or even hundreds of generations. Fast evolution is usually driven by strong selection and can involve numerous allele replacements. Direct observations of evolution come from data of four kinds. Section 1.6.1 treats observations of rapid evolution of nature. Here we will understand the concept of observation broadly, and include data on changes of phenotypes in continuous paleontological records and on local adaptation. However, under some circumstances evolution proceeds so rapidly that substantial changes occur in the course of decades, and, thus, can be literally observed. Section 1.6.2 considers domestication, a phenomenon which became common after the origin agriculture ~12,000 years ago, and evolution of domesticated plants and animals. Due to artificial selection and to natural selection under new environment, important phenotypes of many domesticated species are currently way outside the range of their natural variation, and the diversity of varieties is astonishing. Thus, domesticated species provide a rich source of data on evolution at a relatively small scale. Section 1.6.3 reviews data on experimental evolution in controlled populations of a variety of organisms. Such experiments are an important tool of evolutionary biology, which made it possible to directly observe a number of key phenomena. However, a limitation of evolutionary experiments is that they must deal with organisms with short generation times.
    [Show full text]
  • Genes, Race, and History JONATHAN MARKS
    FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR An Aldine de Gruyter Series of Texts and Monographs SERIES EDITORS Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, University of California, Davis Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, University of California, Davis Richard D. Alexander, The Biology of Moral Systems Laura L. Betzig, Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History Russell L. Ciochon and John G. Fleagle (Eds.), Primate Evolution and Human Origins Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, Homicide Irensus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Human Ethology Richard J. Gelles and Jane B. Lancaster (Eds,), Child Abuse and Neglect: Biosocial Dimensions Kathleen R. Gibson and Anne C. Petersen (Eds.), Brain Maturation and Cognitive Development: Comparative and Cross-Cultural Perspectives Barry S, Hewlett (Ed.), Father-Child Relations: Cultural and Biosocial Contexts Warren G. Kinzey (Ed.), New World Primates: Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Kim Hill and A. Magdalena Hurtado: Ache Life History: The Ecology and Demography of a Foraging People Jane B. Lancaster, Jeanne Altmann, Alice S. Rossi, and Lonnie R. Sherrod (Eds.), Parenting Across the Life Span: Biosocial Dimensions Jane B. Lancaster and Beatrix A. Hamburg (Eds.), School Age Pregnancy and Parenthood: Biosocial Dimensions Jonathan Marks, Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History Richard B. Potts, Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai Eric Alden Smith, Inujjuamiut Foraging Strategies Eric Alden Smith and Bruce Winterhalder (Eds.), Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine Dettwyler, Breastfeeding: A Bioaftural Perspective Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Susan Kent (Eds.), Diet, Demography, and Disease: Changing Perspectives on Anemia Wenda R. Trevathan, Human Birth: An Evolutionary Perspective James W. Wood, Dynamics of Human Reproduction: Biology, Biometry, Demography HulMAN BIODIVERS~ Genes, Race, and History JONATHAN MARKS ALDINE DE GRUYTER New York About the Author Jonathan Marks is Visiting Associate Professorof Anthropology, at the University of California, Berkeley.
    [Show full text]
  • Edwards, Anthony
    Anthony Edwards Personal Details Name Anthony Edwards Dates Born 1935 Place of Birth UK (London) Main work places Pavia, Cambridge Principal field of work Mathematical genetics Short biography See below Interview Recorded interview made Yes Interviewer Peter Harper Date of Interview 10/12/2004 Edited transcript available See below Personal Scientific Records Significant Record set exists Yes Records catalogued No Permanent place of archive Summary of archive Biography Anthony William Fairbank Edwards (born 1935) is a British statistician, geneticist, and evolutionary biologist. He is a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College and retired Professor of Biometry at the University of Cambridge, and holds both the ScD and LittD degrees. A pupil of R.A. Fisher, he has written several books and numerous scientific papers. He is best known for his pioneering work, with L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, on quantitative methods of phylogenetic analysis, and for strongly advocating Fisher's concept of likelihood as the proper basis for statistical and scientific inference. He has also written extensively on the history of genetics and statistics, including an analysis of whether Mendel's results were "too good", and also on purely mathematical subjects, such as Venn diagrams. His elder brother John H. Edwards (1928–2007) was a geneticist. He is also known for his involvement in gliding, particularly within the Cambridge University Gliding Club and for his writing on the subject in Sailplane and Gliding magazine as "the armchair pilot". INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR ANTHONY EDWARDS, 10th DECEMBER, 2004 AE. It’s Friday 10 December 2004 and I’m speaking to Professor Anthony Edwards at his home in Barton near Cambridge.
    [Show full text]
  • Nature-Nurture, IQ, and Jensenism
    1 NATURE-NURTURE. I.Q., AND JENSENISM: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE By RICHARD STEPHEN RI CHARDE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1979 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express appreciation to my committee members, Dr. Robert E. Jester, Dr. Richard J. Anderson, and Dr. Arthur Newman for their support in this project. I would also like to thank Dr. Robert R. Sherman and Dr. William B. Ware for their assistance in my research. Special thanks fo my wife, Lee, for her moral support and typing skills. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iv PROLOGUE 1 I WHY BE CONCERNED? 6 II THE ORIGIN OF THE CONTROVERSY: A HISTORICAL VIEW FROM PHILOSOPHY 12 III NINETEENTH CENTURY BIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY: THE SCIENCE OF RACISM 34 IV A BRANCHING PATH: GENETICS VS. EUGENICS 58 V A VIEW FROM PSYCHOLOGY: THE MENTAL TESTING MOVEMENT IN AMERICA 82 VI JENSEN AND JENSENISM: ANACHRONISTIC HERESY 148 Jensen's Mentors 156 Level I and Level II Abilities 164 Jensen's Advocates 167 The Range of Opposition 169 Psychology and Education 170 Cultural Anthropology 187 Quantitative Genetics 190 The Contribution ol Jensen 212 VII FROM THE PROMETHEAN LEGACY TO A NEW OPTIMISM APPENDIX LIST OF REFERENCES BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH iii Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of Florida V in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy NATURE-NURTURE, I.Q., AND JENSENISM- A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE By Richard Stephen Ri Charde December 1979 Chairman: Robert E.
    [Show full text]
  • Heredity and Hereditarianism
    Philosophy of Education An Encyclopedia Editor J.J. Chambliss Garland Publishing, Inc. New York & London 1996 HEREDITY AND HEREDITARIANISM Barry Mehler Department of Humanities Ferris State University Big Rapids, MI 49307 2500 words. Heredity is usually defined as the genetic transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring. This, however, is an oversimplification. The child does not inherit characteristics or traits from its parents. Children do not inherit musical ability, criminal tendencies, or IQ. Neither do they inherit physical characteristics such as skin or hair color. The child inherits one set of allele's from each parent. Together they form the child's genotype. The child also inherits mitochondria which are outside the nucleus of the cell. Genes code for the production of proteins which in turn interact with the environment to produce a phenotype. What we refer to as traits or characteristics are the phenotypes. The human being in all his or her complexity is the result of this interaction of a unique genotype with a unique environment. The modern study of heredity began with the rediscovery in 1900 of the work of Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) by Hugo De Vries, Karl Correns, and Erich Tschermak. Mendel discovered the basic laws of segregation and independent assortment of paired alleles which opened the way for the modern science of genetics. The American geneticist, Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945) carried on studies of heredity in Drosophila (fruit fly) and was awarded the Nobel prize in 1933 for his discoveries relating to the laws and mechanisms of heredity. Morgan showed the existence of genes located at specific sites on chromosomes.
    [Show full text]
  • Fraser, George
    George Fraser Personal Details Name George Fraser Dates 1932 Place of Birth Uzhhorod (Ukraine) Main work places London, Leiden, Adelaide, Seattle, Oxford Principal field of work Human genetics Short biography To follow Interview Recorded interview made Yes Interviewer Peter Harper Date of Interview 03/02/2005 Edited transcript available See below Personal Scientific Records Significant Record set exists Yes Records catalogued In progress Permanent place of archive Summary of archive This document is based on a conversation between George Fraser and Peter Harper on 3 February 2005 at the Galton Laboratory, London . PSH. George, can I start at the beginning and ask where were you born and brought up? GF. I was born in Užhorod— I must tell you a little story about Užhorod. An elderly gentleman died and went to heaven where he was received by Saint Peter. ‘Where were you born?’ asked Saint Peter. ‘The Austro-Hungarian Empire’ was the reply. ‘Where did you go to school?’ ‘Czechoslovakia.’ ‘Where did you get married?’ ‘Carpatho-Ruthenia. I was married on 15 March 1939 when Carpatho- Ruthenia was an independent republic for one day.’ ‘Where did you have children? ‘Hungary.’ ‘Where did your children grow up?’ ‘The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.’ ‘Where did you die?’ ‘Ukraine.’ Saint Peter reflected on this unusual set of answers. ‘Perhaps you have been sent to the wrong place because we do not have facilities for tourism up here. Why did you move around so much down there?’ ‘Move around? I was born in Užhorod and I died in Užhorod and I never once left Užhorod during my entire life’ PSH.
    [Show full text]
  • Detection of Simple Polygenic Segregations in a Natural Population (Genetic Variation/Drosophila Melanogaster/Dominance Modifiers) JAMES N
    Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 82, pp. 8552-8556, December 1985 Evolution Detection of simple polygenic segregations in a natural population (genetic variation/Drosophila melanogaster/dominance modifiers) JAMES N. TH6MPSON, JR.,* AND C. G. N. MASCIE-TAYLORt *Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019; and tDepartment of Physical Anthropology, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 3DZ England Communicated by Hampton L. Carson, August 7, 1985 ABSTRACT Penetrance frequencies were used to quantify MATERIALS AND METHODS segregating polygenic effects in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster. When males from a series of 100 Polygenic modifiers offormation ofthe fifth-longitudinal (L5) isofemale strains were crossed to females from a veinlet line vein were scored in 100 isofemale strains collected around a (ve) single watermelon on a single day in 1973 in Oklahoma City, that had been selected for shortened veins, gaps commonly Oklahoma. The bait was exposed for less than 6 hr before appeared In the fifth longitudinal (L5) vein in the ve/+ collections were made. A localized natural D. melanogaster heterozygotes. We were able to assign each strain to one of six population is extremely difficult to identify with certainty. In significantly different clusters, based upon the pattern of sampling 100 separate genomes collected at the same time polygenic modifiers of ve dominance segregating in each strain. from the same location, however, we have done our best to We conclude that the extensive range of phenotypic variation obtain flies from the same population. in vein-forming ability is actually based upon a relatively Each female had been inseminated before collection, simple underlying polygenic structure that is consistent with though the number ofinseminations could not be determined.
    [Show full text]
  • Complexity, Genetic Causation, and Hereditarianism Charles Roseman University of Illinois, [email protected]
    Wayne State University Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints WSU Press 9-24-2019 Complexity, Genetic Causation, and Hereditarianism Charles Roseman University of Illinois, [email protected] Recommended Citation Roseman, Charles, "Complexity, Genetic Causation, and Hereditarianism" (2019). Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints. 149. https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol_preprints/149 This Open Access Preprint is brought to you for free and open access by the WSU Press at DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. Complexity, Genetic Causation, and Hereditarianism Charles C. Roseman1* 1Department of Animal Biology, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA. *Correspondence to: Charles C. Roseman, Department of Animal Biology, School of Integrative Biology, 286 Morrill Hall, MC-120, University of Illinois, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 USA. E-mail: [email protected]. Short Title: Complexity, Genetic Causation, and Hereditarianism KEY WORDS: HEREDITARIANISM, GENETIC CAUSATION, HERITABILITY Abstract Hereditarians have claimed that recent advances in psychological and psychiatric genetics support their contention that individual and group socially important aspects of behavior and cognition are largely insensitive to environmental context. This has been countered by anti- hereditarians who (correctly) claim that the conclusion of genetic ineluctability is false. Anti- hereditarians, however, sometimes use problematic arguments based on complexity and the ignorance that comes with complexity and a demand for mechanistic, as opposed to variational, explanations for the ways in which genes affect phenotype. I argue here, as a committed anti- hereditarian, that the complexity gambit and the demand for mechanisms open anti-hereditarian Pre-print version.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cyclical Return of the IQ Controversy: Revisiting the Lessons of the Resolution on Genetics, Race and Intelligence
    Journal of the History of Biology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-021-09637-6 ORIGINAL RESEARCH The Cyclical Return of the IQ Controversy: Revisiting the Lessons of the Resolution on Genetics, Race and Intelligence Davide Serpico1 Accepted: 17 April 2021 © The Author(s) 2021 Abstract In 1976, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) published a document enti- tled “Resolution of Genetics, Race, and Intelligence.” This document laid out the Society’s position in the IQ controversy, particularly that on scientifc and ethical questions involving the genetics of intellectual diferences between human popula- tions. Since the GSA was the largest scientifc society of geneticists in the world, many expected the document to be of central importance in settling the controversy. Unfortunately, the Resolution had surprisingly little infuence on the discussion. In 1979, William Provine analyzed the possible factors that decreased the impact of the Resolution, among them scientists’ limited understanding of the relationship between science and ethics. Through the analysis of unpublished versions of the Resolution and exchanges between GSA members, I will suggest that the limited impact of the statement likely depended on a shift in the aims of the GSA due to the controversies that surrounded the preparation of the document. Indeed, the demands of the membership made it progressively more impartial in both scientifc and politi- cal terms, decreasing its potential signifcance for a wider audience. Notably, the troubled history of the Resolution raises the question of what can make efective or inefective the communication between scientists and the public—a question with resonance in past and present discussions on topics of social importance.
    [Show full text]