Matt Ridley reminds us that it was Francis Galton who began the nurture versus nature debate, in the 19th century. Galton, who was half cousin to Charles Darwin, also “invented” eugenics, the striving to improve the human race through “selective breeding.”
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Matt Ridley
Fourth Estate, £18.99, pp 328 ISBN 1 84115 745 7
Rating: ★★★★
This debate—nurture versus nature—has more or less dominated the 20th century. At the two extremes were Stalin, with his communistic ideas about the influence of education and environment, and Hitler, with his eugenic ideas about race superiority. The debate has also entered the field of education: are children clean slates, able to be moulded by their environment, or are their intelligence and character inherited? Ridley covers all these aspects and many more in a very eloquent, fluent style that leaves no space for boredom.
So what is Ridley's main argument? He is not very direct and doesn't choose the side of the environmentalists or the geneticists. His aim is to convince us that there is not a polarity but a synthesis. To see human development ruled only by genes carried by DNA, not influenced by the environment, is too simple. Genes are regulated by promoter genes, and these in turn can be switched on or off by environmental factors. As he says, genes are enablers, not constrainers.
He even, in a witty way, tries not to alienate religious readers. What is it that designs and guides genes? He calls it a genome organising device, or GOD. He also reminds us that there are seven different definitions for genes—different ways of approaching them. He says that the presumed linear relationship between genes and illness (such as a gene for diabetes) is just one of the ways of approaching the concept of genes.
The real treasure of this book is in his essay on free will. He feels that modern science can glimpse the scientific basis for free will as we begin to understand the brain. He comes up with the concept of circular causality: genes related to learning and memory not only cause behaviour but respond to experience through promoter genes. These promoter genes again set a process in action that affects memory.
This book is a very pleasurable way to update your knowledge on the nature versus nurture debate. It is fast paced and well written and is even suitable for a tired doctor after a day's work. Yet in the end I am still not convinced that nurture and nature, however they work together, are the only influences in our lives. I am left being quite intrigued by the role of GOD.
Items reviewed are rated on a 4 star scale (4=excellent)