What makes us human: innate, acquired, genes, experience, and what else?

Author: Matt Ridley, Richard Dawkins, Oliver Sacks
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Heaven and earth were created, the sea waves lapped the shore, fish swam in the water, birds sang joyfully, crowds of people moved about on the land, but there was still no soulful, world-ruling higher life form. At this time, Prometheus was born, endowing all things with wisdom and stealing fire from the heavens to illuminate the world (this book) gives a modern soul to an ancient debate, while also providing an excellent introduction to contemporary genetics: the feedback loops between genes and the environment are often poorly understood. Now, this plasticity, this beautiful interplay, seems crucial to how our new understanding of human nature will affect public policy. The times call for such a book. – Ian McEwan, renowned author, winner of the British Booker Prize and the American National Book Award Clearly explains what makes us what we are today. It is excellent to think about these recent discoveries as we contemplate what we want to become, written with insight, wisdom, and a charming style. – Steven Pinker, author of "The Blank Slate" and professor of psychology at Harvard University A delightful intellectual journey, clear, balanced, and, of course, highly entertaining. "Nature and Nurture" offers a profound and fascinating examination of our modern understanding of genes and experience. – Oliver Sacks, professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, renowned popular science writer This is truly a captivating book! How excellent a writer he is, and he seems to be getting even better. – Richard Dawkins, author of "The Selfish Gene" and "The Extended Phenotype," and professor of zoology at Oxford University This book meticulously documents the new revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley describes the believers in nature and the believers in nurture, the century-long debate over how to explain humanity, this paradoxical creation that can have free will yet be driven by instinct and culture. It presents an exciting, cutting-edge account of how genes build brains to attract experience. The book is filled with insight, wisdom, and a charming style. In February 2001, the scientific community announced that the genome contained not the 100,000 genes previously expected, but only 30,000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that human genes were actually insufficient to explain all the different ways people behave: we must be shaped more by nurture than by nature. Biology is once again being torn apart on the Procrustes' bed of the nature-nurture debate. The highly acclaimed popular science writer Matt Ridley argues that the emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on genes, and genes require nurture. Genes not only pre-specify the broad structure of the brain but also absorb shaping experiences, respond to social cues, and even operate memory. They are the cause of will. They are also the result of will. Published 50 years after the discovery of the DNA double helix, "Nature and Nurture" meticulously documents the new revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley describes the believers in nature and the believers in nurture, the century-long debate over how to explain humanity, this paradoxical creation that can have free will yet be driven by instinct and culture. "Nature and Nurture" presents an exciting, cutting-edge account of how genes build brains to attract experience.