Lifelines Life beyond the Gene

by Rose, Steven

• ISBN13: 9780195150391
• ISBN10: 0195150392
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Reductionism--understanding complex processes by breaking them intosimpler elements--dominates scientific thinking around the world and hascertainly proved a powerful tool, leading to major discoveries in every field ofscience. But reductionism can be taken too far, especially in the life sciences,where sociobiological thinking has bordered on biological determinism. Thuspopular science writers such as Richard Dawkins, author of the highlyinfluential The Selfish Gene, can write that human beings are just "robotvehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes."Indeed, for many in science, genes have become the fundamental unit forunderstanding human existence: genes determine every aspect of our lives, frompersonal success to existential despair: genes for health and illness, genes forcriminality, violence, and sexual orientation. Others would say that this isreductionism with a vengeance.In Lifelines, biologist Steven Rose offers a powerful alternative to theultradarwinist claims of Dawkins, E.O. Wilson, Daniel Dennett and others. Roseargues against an extreme reductionist approach that would make the gene the keyto understanding human nature, in favor of a more complex and richer vision oflife. He urges instead that we focus on the organism and in particular on theorganism's lifeline: the trajectory it takes through time and space. Ourpersonal lifeline, Rose points out, is unique--even identical twins, withidentical genes at birth, will differ over time. These differences are obviouslynot embedded in our genes, but come about through our developmental trajectoryin which genes, as part of the biochemical orchestra of trillions of cells ineach human body, have an important part--but only a part--to play. To illustratethis idea, Rose examines recent research in modern biology, and especially twodisciplines--genetics (which looks at the impact of genes on form) anddevelopmental biology (which examines the interaction between the organism andthe environment)--and he explores new ideas on biological complexity proposed byscientists such as Stuart Kauffman. He shows how our lifelines are constructedthrough the interplay of physical forces--such as the intrinsic chemistry oflipids and proteins, and the self-organizing and stabilizing properties ofcomplex metabolic webs--and he reaches a startling conclusion: that organismsare active players in their own fate, not simply the playthings of the gods,nature, or the inevitable workings out of gene-driven natural selection. Theorganism is both the weaver and the pattern it weaves.Lifelines will be a rallying point for all who seek an alternative to thecurrently fashionable, deeply determinist accounts which dominate popularscience writing and, in fact, crowd the pages of some of the major scientificjournals. Based on solid, state-of-the-art research, it not only makes importantcontributions to our understanding of Darwin and natural selection, but willswing the pendulum back to a richer, more complex view of human nature and oflife.

Author Biography

Steven Rose is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biology, Open University. He won the 1993 British Science Book Prize for The Making of Memory, and is also the author of The Conscious Brain and Not in Our Genes.

Table of Contents

Preface

Credits

Biology, Freedom, Determinism

Observing and Intervening

Knowing What We Know

The Triumph of Reductionism?

Genes and Organisms

Lifelines

Universal Darwinism?

Beyond Ultra-Darwinism

Origin Myths

The Poverty of Reductionism

Envoi: Making Biology Whole Again

Bibliography

Index

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