Dialogue. The Response: Academic Vigilantism and the Political Significance of Author(s): Edward O. Wilson Source: BioScience, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Mar., 1976), pp. 183+187-190 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1297247 . Accessed: 07/08/2014 05:57

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:57:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Rtespense

Academic Vigilantismand the Political Significance of Sociobiology

Edward O. Wilson

The best response to a political institutions of their society by exoner- article. In contrast, and regardless of all attack of the kind exemplified by the ating them from responsibility for social they have said, I am ideologically indif- preceding article, "Sociobiology- problems." The tone of the present ferent to the degree of determinism in Another Biological Determinism," is BioScience article is muted, but the human behavior. If human beings perhaps no response at all. Some of my innuendo is clear and remains the same. proved infinitely malleable, as they colleagues have offered that advice. But This tactic, which has been employed hope, then one could justify any social the problem is larger than the personal by members of or economic arrangement according to distress that this and earlier activities of against other scientists, throws the his personal value system. If on the the Science for the People group have person criticized into the role of defen- other hand, human beings proved com- caused me. The issue at hand, I submit, dant and renders his ideas easier to pletely fixed, then the status quo could is vigilantism: the judgment of a work discredit. Free and open discussion be justified as unavoidable. of science according to whether it con- becomes difficult, as the critics continue Few reasonable persons take the first forms to the political convictions of the to press their campaign, and the target extreme position and none the second. judges, who are self-appointed. The sen- struggles to clear his name. The problem On the basis of objective evidence the tence for scientists found guilty is to be is increased by difficulties in knowing truth appears to lie somewhere in given a label and to be associated with with whom one is dealing. The state- between, closer to the environmentalist past deeds that all decent persons will ments are often published over long lists than to the genetic pole. That was my find repellent. of names, shifts in committee member- wholly empirical conclusion in Socio- Thus, in a statement published earlier ship occur through time, and the biology: The New Synthesis and con- in The New York Review of Books authors' names are withheld from some tinues to be in later writings. There is no (Allen et al. 1-975), the Science for the of the documents. (All have occurred reasonable way that this generalization People group characterized my book during the present controversy.) can be construed as a support of the So cio biology: The New Synthesis Despite the protean physical form status quo and continued injustice, as (Wilson 1975a) as the latest attempt to taken by the Sociobiology Study Group the Science for the People group have reinvigorate theories that in the past of Science for the People, the belief now, on four painful occasions, claimed. "provided an important basis for the system they promote is clear-cut and I have personally argued the opposite enactment of sterilization laws and rigid. They postulate that human beings conclusion, most fully and explicitly in restrictive immigration laws by the need only decide on the kind of society my New York Times Magazine article of United States between 1910 and 1930 they wish, and then find the way to 12 October 1975 (Wilson 1975b). The and also for the eugenics policies which bring it into being. Such a vision can be Science for the People group have not led to the establishment of gas chambers justified if human social behavior proves found it convenient to mention this part in Nazi Germany." To this malicious to be infinitely malleable. In their of my writings. charge they added, "Wilson joins the earlier New York Review statement With the exception of the Science for long parade of biological determinists (Allen et al. 1975) the group therefore the People group, all of the many whose work has served to buttress the maintained that although eating, biologists and social scientists whose excreting, and sleeping may be reviews of Sociobiology: The New genetically determined, social behavior I have seen understood the The author is with the Museumof Compara- Synthesis tive Zoology, HarvardUniversity, Cambridge, is entirely learned; this belief has been MA02138. developed further in the BioScience Continued on p. 187

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:57:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Response are the research protocols of human to exist by simply deleting three key ; and anthropology and pieces from the quoted statement. Most Continued from p. 183 sociology together constitute the socio- human societies are territorial most of biology of a single primate species." the time. book correctly. None has read a It is the intellectually viable conten- reactionary political message into it, tion of the final chapter that the socio- even though the reviewers represent a biological methods which have proved Warfare variety of personal political persuasions; effective in the study of animals can be In Sociobiology I presented wide- and none has found my assessment of extended to human beings, even though lethal warfare in human the of determinism in human our vastly more complex, flexible spread early degree as a not as a social behavior out of line with the behavior will make the application tech- groups working hypothesis, fact, contrary to what the cosigners empirical evidence. The Science for the nically more difficult. The degree of suggest. And it is a hypothesis wholly People group have utterly misrepre- success cannot yet be predicted. consistent with the evidence: military sented the spirit and content of the Chapter 27 was intended to be a begin- activity and territorial expansion have portions of Sociobiology devoted to ning rather than a conclusion, and other been concomitants throughout history human beings. They have done so, it reviewers have so interpreted it. In it I and at all levels of social organization would seem, in order to have a con- have characterized the distinctive (Otterbein 1970), and they can hardly spicuous straw man against which their human traits as best I could from the fail to have had significant demographic views can be favorably pitted, and to literature of the social sciences, and I and genetic consequences. obscure the valid points in Sociobiology have offered a set of hypotheses about which do indeed threaten their own the evolution of the traits stated in a extreme Let me document this way that seemed to make them most position. and Other Terms interpretation with responses to the susceptible to analysis by sociobio- Slavery specific criticisms made by the 35 logical methods. The cosigners state that I claim to cosigners. The Science for the People group have found barter, religion, magic, and ignore this main thrust of the book. tribalism among nonhumans. I have They cite piece by piece incorrectly, or made no such claim. The cosigners do RESPONSETO CRITICISMS out of context, and then add their own not like to see terms such as slavery, commentary to furnish me with a po- division of labor, and ritual used in both it should be noted that First, Socio- litical attitude I do not have and the zoology and the social sciences. Do they biology: The New Synthesis is a large book with a general conclusion that is wish also to expunge communication, 27 and book, within which only chapter not there. The following examples cover dominance, monogamy, and parental in earlier scattered paragraphs chapters nearly all of their points. care from the vocabulary of zoology? refer to man. The main theses of socio- biology are based on studies of a myriad of conducted hun- animal species by Roles Genetic Basesof Behavior dreds of investigators in various bio- logical disciplines. It has been possible The 35 cosigners have me saying The cosigners claim that no evidence to derive propositions by the traditional that role sectors, and thus certain forms exists for the genetic basis of particular postulational and deductive methods of of economic role behavior associated forms of social behavior. Their state- theoretical science, and to test many of with role sectors, are universal in man. ment indicates that they do not use the them rigorously by quantitative studies. On pages 552 and 554, the reader will same criteria as other biologists. To One can cite the work on find that I did not include role sectors postulate the existence of genes for the in social Hymenoptera, the elaboration among the widespread or universal diagnostic human traits is not to imply of caste systems in social insects, the traits. What I said was that when role that there exists one gene for spite, economic functions of vertebrate terri- sectors occur, certain economic features another for homosexuality, and so on, tories, the ecological causes of ungulate are associated with them. as one might envision the inheritance of social behavior, the repertory size and flower color or seed texture in garden transmission characteristics of commun- peas. The tendency to develop such in a human ication systems, and others. These ideas Territory behaviors, distinctively and data provide the main thrust of form, is part of an immensely complex general sociobiology. It is now well known that animal social repertory which is undoubtedly In my book human sociobiology was territories commonly vary in size and dependent on large numbers of genes. approached tentatively and in a taxono- quality of defense according to habitat, My emphasis in Sociobiology was on mic rather than a political spirit. The season, and population density. Under the most widespread, distinctive quali- final chapter opens with the following some circumstances many species show ties of human behavior-"human passage: "Let us now consider man in no territorial behavior, but it is neces- nature" if you wish-and the possible the free spirit of natural history, as sary for them to display the behav- reasons why the underlying genes are though we were zoologists from another ior under other, specified circum- different from those affecting social planet completing a catalog of social stances in order to be called territorial- behavior in other species. Certain forms species on Earth. In this macroscopic an obvious condition. This is the reason of human social behavior, such as the view the humanities and social sciences I have called the human species terri- facial expressions used to convey the shrink to specialized branches of torial. No contradiction in definitions basic emotions, are relatively inflexible biology; history, biography, and fiction exists; the cosigners have made it appear and transcultural. Human expressions,

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:57:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions in fact, are so similar to those of the cosigners): "When any genetic bias is of the size and composition of the higher cercopithecoid primates as to demonstrated, it cannot be used to group. It has grown from 16, when it suggest the possible existence of true justify a continuing practice in present called itself The Genetic Engineering homology (Sociobiology, pp. 227-228). and future societies. Since most of us Group of Scientists and Engineers for Other kinds of response, including those live in a radically new environment of Social and Political Action (in the maga- under the categories of aggression, our own making, the pursuit of such a zine Science for the People, November sexuality, and conformity, are of course practice would be bad biology; and like 1975), to the present 35 now identified subject to great variation through differ- all bad biology, it would invite dis- as the Sociobiology Study Group of ences in experience. But as plastic as aster." I then cited examples of mala- Science for the People. The member- these latter behaviors might seem to us, daptive behavior in human beings. ship is heterogeneous: from the best they still form only a small subset of the Furthermore, both R. L. Trivers and I count I can make there are eight profes- many versions found in social species as have provided varieties of adaptation sors in several fields of science in the a whole. It seems inconceivable that hypotheses that compete with each area; other members include at human beings could be socialized into other and against the non-adaptation least one psychiatrist, a secondary school the distinctive patterns of, say, ring- hypothesis, contrary to the assertion of teacher, students and research assistants. tailed lemurs, hamadryas baboons, or the Science for the People group (see, Furthermore, in conformity with their gibbons, or vice versa. This is the ordin- e.g., Sociobiology: pp. 123-124, political convictions the group really ary criterion on which the expression 309-311, 326-327, 416-418). does believe in collective decision "genetic control of human social making and writing, so perhaps the result is not all that the behavior" in sociobiology is based. The CulturalEvolution surprising. (In main idea conveyed by the final chapter issue of Science for the People just of my book is that such a comparison The cosigners propose that "socio- mentioned, the two main targets of with other social species will place biological hypotheses" can be tested by criticism were myself, for biological human behavior in a clearer evolution- seeing whether certain short-term epi- determinism, and the Soviet Union, for ary perspective. sodes in history, such as the rise and revisionism.) With reference to genetic variation decline of Islam, occurred too rapidly to But the other, more important cause between human populations, there is no be due to genetic change. They con- of the problem, and the reason I have firm evidence. As usual, the cosigners clude that the theory of population not been able to find the matter as misrepresent what I said. Here is their genetics excludes that possibility. I humorous as have some of my col- claim: "It is stated as a fact that agree, and that is why neither I nor any leagues, is the remorseless zeal of the genetical differences underly variations other sociobiologist of my acquaintance cosigners. By their own testimony they between cultures, when no evidence at has ever proposed such hypotheses. The worked for months on the project. They all exists for this assertion and there is examples I used in Sociobiology to appear to have been alarmed by the some considerable evidence against it" make the same point are the origin of impact a critical success of the book (emphasis theirs). Here is what I really the slave society of Jamaica, the decline might have on the acceptability of their said, in the very sentences to which they of the Ik in Uganda, the alteration of own political views. One of the faculty allude (p. 550): "Even a small portion Irish society following the potato members, in a Harvard Crimson inter- of this [genetic] variance invested in famine, and the shift in the Japanese view on 3 November 1975, stated that population differences might predispose authority structure following World War the group was formed of persons who societies toward cultural differences. At II (pp. 548-550). I see no reason why became interested "in breaking down the very least, we should try to measure the subject was even brought up. (A the screen of approval" around the this amount. It is not valid to point to fuller discussion of the rates of cultural book. Clamorous denunciations fol- the absence of a behavioral trait in one evolution and the complementarity of lowed during a closely packed series of or a few societies as conclusive evidence cultural to genetic evolution can be lectures, work sessions, and release of that the trait is environmentally induced found in pages 168-175 and 555-562 of printed statements. In October 1975 a and has no genetic disposition in man. Sociobiology. ) second professorial member of the The very opposite could be true" (italics group drafted a 5,000-word position for The New York Times which newly added). COMMENTSON THE DEBATE paper characterized me as an ideologue and a I now invite readers to check each of privileged member of modern Western Adaptationversus Non-adaptation the pronouncements in the article by industrial society whose book attempts The Science for the People group the 35 cosigners against the actual state- to preserve the status quo (The New state that I believe all social behavior to ments in my book, in the true context York Times, 9 November 1975). Later be adaptive and hence "normal." This is in which the statements were made. I the same person (who shares the so patently false that I am surprised the suggest that they will encounter very identical privileges at Harvard) startled cosigners could bring themselves to say little correspondence, and I am confi- me even more by declaring that "Socio- it. I have on the contrary discussed dent that they will be left with no biology is not a racist doctrine" but circumstances under which certain doubt as to my true meaning. "any kind of genetic determinism can forms of animal social behavior become How is it possible for the Science for and does feed other kinds, including the maladaptive, with examples and ways in the People group to misrepresent so belief that some races are superior to which the deviations can be analyzed consistently the content of a book, in others" (Harvard Crimson, 3 December (pp. 33-34). With reference to human contrast to all of the many other 1975). social behavior I have said (Wilson reviewers among their scientific col- The latter argument is identical to 1975b, an article well known to the leagues? There is first the circumstance that advanced simultaneously by

188 BioScience Vol. 26 No. 3

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:57:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions student members of the Harvard-Rad- These two premises are somewhat the unique human genotype. The chal- cliffe Committee against Racism, who, different in content, and they lead to lenge of human sociobiology, shared citing the Science for the People state- radically different prescriptions. Rawls with the social sciences, is to measure ment for authority, did not hesitate to would allow rigid social control to the degree of these constraints and to label the book "dangerously racist" in secure as close an approach as possible infer their significance through the leaflets distributed through the Boston to the equal distribution of society's reconstruction of the evolutionary area. Both the logic and the accusation rewards. Nozick sees the ideal society as history of the mind. The enterprise is were false and hurtful, and at this point one governed by a minimal state, the logical complement to the con- the matter was close to getting out of empowered only to protect its citizens tinued study of cultural evolution. hand. from force and fraud, and with unequal Even if that formidable challenge is On various occasions and with only distribution of rewards wholly permis- successfully met, however, it will still limited success the Harvard faculty has sible. Rawls rejects the meritocracy; leave the ethical question: To what attempted to protect itself from activi- Nozick accepts it as desirable except in extent should the censors and motiva- ties of this kind. During an earlier, those cases where local communities tors in the emotive centers of the brain similar episode 100 of its members voluntarily decide to experiment with be obeyed? Given that these controls published a statement that "In an aca- egalitarianism. deeply and unconsciously affect our demic community the substitution of Whether in conflict or agreement, moral decisions, how faithfully must personal harassment for reasoned where do such fundamental premises they be consulted once they have been inquiry is intolerable. The openminded come from? What lies behind the intui- defined and assayed as a biological search for truth cannot proceed in an tion on which they are based? Contem- process? The answer must confront what atmosphere of political intimidation." porary philosophers have progressed no appears to me to be the true human This is the melancholy principle which further that Sophocles' Antigone, who dilemma. We cannot follow the sugges- has been confirmed by the exchange said of moral imperatives, "They were tions of the censors and motivators now extended to BioScience. In the not born today or yesterday; they die blindly. Although they are the source of Boston area at the present time it has not, and none knoweth whence they our deepest and most compelling become difficult to conduct an open sprung." feelings, their genetic constraints forum on human sociobiology, or even At this point the 35 members of the evolved during the millions of years of general sociobiology, without falling Science for the People group also come prehistory, under conditions that to a into the role of either prosecutor or to a halt. At the close of their essay large extent no longer exist. At some defendant. they imply the central issue to be a time in the future it will be necessary to decision about the kind of the society decide how human we wish to remain, THE POLITICALSIGNIFICANCE we want to live in; humanity can then in this the ultimate biological sense, and OF SOCIOBIOLOGY find the way to bring this society into to pick and choose consciously among Finally and briefly, let me express being. But which persons are the "we" the emotional guides we have inherited. what I consider to be the real signifi- who will decide, and whose moral pre- This dilemma should engender a cance of human sociobiology for politi- cepts must thereby be validated? The sense of reserve about proposals for cal and social thought. The question group believe that all social behavior is radical social change based on utopian that science is now in a position to learned and transmitted by culture. But intuition. To the extent that the bio- approach is the very origin and meaning if this is true, the value system by which logical interpretation noted here proves of human values, from which all ethical '"we" will decide social policy is created correct, men have rights that are innate, pronouncements and much of political by the culture in which the most power- rooted in the ineradicable drives for practice flow. Philosophers themselves ful decision makers were reared and survival and self-esteem, and these rights have not explored the problem; tradi- hence must inevitably validate the status do not require the validation of ad hoc tional ethical philosophy begins with quo, the very condition which the theoretical constructions produced by premises that are examined with refer- Science for the People group reject. The society. If culture is all that created ence to their consequences but not their solution to the conundrum must be that human rights, as the extreme environ- origins. Thus, John Rawls opens his their premise of complete environmen- mentalist position holds, then culture celebrated A Theory of Justice (1971) talism is wrong. can equally well validate their removal. with a proposition he regards as beyond The evidence that human nature is to Even some philosophers of the radical dispute: "In a just society the liberties some extent genetically influenced is in left see this flaw in the position taken of equal citizenship are taken as settled; my opinion decisive. In the present by Science for the People. Noam the rights secured by justice are not space I can only suggest that the reader Chomsky, whose own linguistic research subject to political bargaining or to the consider the facts presented in Socio- has provided evidence for the existence calculus of social interests." Robert biology and in the very extensive pri- of genetic influence, considers extreme Nozick launches his equally celebrated mary literature on the subject, some of environmentalism to be a belief suscep- Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) with which is cited in this work. It follows tible to dictatorships of both the left a similarly firm proposition: "Indivi- that value systems are probably influ- and the right: duals have rights, and there are things enced, again to an unknown extent, by One can easily see why reformersand emotional in no person or group may do to them responses programmed the revolutionariesshould become radical (without violating their rights). So limbic system of the brain. The qualities environmentalists, and there is no strong and far-reaching are these rights that comprise human nature in the doubt that concepts of immutable that they raise the question of what, if Maring of New Guinea as recognizably human nature can be and have been anything, the state and its officials may as they did in the Greeks at Troy are employed to erect barriers against do." surely due in part to constraints within social changeand to defend established

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:57:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions privilege.But a deeper look will show group have committed what can be the genetic constraints of human nature, that the concept of the "empty organ- usefully termed the Fallacy of the which will steadily replace rumor and ism," plastic and unstructured,apart Political Consequent. This is the folklore with testable knowledge. from also serves being false, naturally assumption that political belief systems Nothing is to be gained by a dogmatic as the for the most support reactionary can be mapped one-on-one onto bio- denial of the existence of the con- social doctrines. If are, in fact, people logical or psychological generalizations. straints or to malleable and plastic beings with no attempts discourage public Another particularly ironic example is discussion of essential psychological nature, then them. Knowledge the to F. Skinner's why should they not be controlledand response B. writings. humanely acquired and widely shared, coerced by those who claimauthority, Skinner is a radical environmentalist, related to human needs but kept free of specialknowledge, and a uniqueinsight whose conclusions about human political censorship, is the real science into what is best for those less enlight- behavior are essentially indistinguishable for the people. ened? ... The principle that human from those of the Science for the People nature, in its psychologicalaspects, is group. Yet the particular political con- REFERENCESCITED nothingmore than a productof history clusions he has drawn are anathema to Allen, E. et al. 1975 Against sociobiology. social relations removes all The New York Review 13 and given the radical left, who reject them as of Books, barriersto coercion and manipulation November. elitist, reactionary, and so forth. The by the powerful.This too, I think, may Chomsky,N. 1975. Reflections on Language. cause of the Fallacy of the Political be a reasonfor its appealto intellectual Pantheon Books, Random House, New is the failure to ideologists, of whatever political Consequent appreciate York. persuasion(Chomsky 1975, p. 132). adequately that scientific theories and Nozick, R. 1974. Anarchy, State and Utopia. political ideas are both complex and BasicBooks, New York. Chomsky and I, not to mention Herbert tenuously linked, and that political Otterbein,K. F. 1970. TheEvolution of War. Marcuse (who has a similar belief in the ideas are shaped in good part by Human Relations Area Files Press, New biological conservatism of human personal judgments lying outside the Haven,Conn. Rawls, J. 1971. A Justice. Harvard nature), can scarcely be accused of domain of scientific evaluation. Theoryof UniversityPress, Cambridge, Mass. having linked arms to preserve the status All political proposals, radical and Wilson, E. 0. 1975a. The New and that would seem to follow should be received Sociobiology: quo, yet otherwise, seriously Synthesis. HarvardUniversity Press, Cam- from the strange logic employed by the and debated. But whatever direction we bridge,Mass. Science for the People group. choose to take in the future, social . 1975b. Humandecency is animal.The In their corybantic attentions to progress can only be enhanced, not New York 77TmesMagazine, 12 October, sociobiology, the Science for the People impeded, by the deeper investigation of pp. 38-50.

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