Talk:Biological determinism

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[edit] This

this page should probably be in some way merged with genetic determinism, no ? Or at least, their relationship should be made clearer ... Flammifer 03:58, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Although it is not entirely th same, the relationship should probably be clarified. Karol 07:49, July 18, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The brain picture

Shouldn't it be noted that those brains were photo-manipulated? They look like it- when you think about it, it's rediculous how such abnormal and bizzare brain structures could cause relatively minor criminal tendencies such as vagrancy and alcoholism. The 1920's were an integral part of the American eugenics movement and it wasn't that hard to photo-manipulate things like that. Even only several years later, people were able to pull of very advanced photo-manipulation techniques, most notable being that one photo of the man standing next to Stalin. To do it to brains wouldn't be much of a challenge.

Do you have actual evidence to support these assertions? Or does it just seem likely to you? There could trivially be other explanations (like the researchers decided to only study the brains of criminals who had a history of traumatic brain injury). WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:14, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Biological determinism is the opposite of social determinism?

The article saids that biological determinism is the opposite of social determinism. I don't think that it is correct since there are other reductionist theories (like Technological determinism, Economic determinism, etc), so you could say that each one of these is the opposite of all others. AKoan (talk) 12:17, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Biologism IS NOT Biological Determinism

I strongly recommend to write an article on biologism, and therefore NOT TO REDIRECT (as it has been done) that entry here (to BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM), and even less, NOT TO DELETE (as it has been proposed) that entry. The fact is, "biologism" is redirected to "biological determinism", which is a conceptual error highly biased by ideological issues. In no way the two terms are to be identified. Changes, then, should be made in both articles. I have written something on biologism for a conference; I'd be delighted to share it with you, but the fact is that it's in Spanish. Does anyone want to translate it or to use it for an English article?

"Biological determinism" might be merged with "Genetical determinsm", OK, but only with the proviso that they are not the same, but rather the latter is a certain type of the former. Anyhow, these two topics are not scientific theories or programs but ideologies. By contrast, biologism is a very respectable research program: it is the use of biological explanations in the social sciences and psychology, an important issue which should be defended and discussed. And certainly IT IS NOT biological determinism, AND THEREFORE "BIOLOGISM" SHOULD NOT BE REDIRECTED HERE. GoodBiologism (talk) 16:12, 26 April 2008 (UTC)GoodBiologism

[edit] On Lewontin and "biologism"

I can read in this article:

"[...] the uncritical use of biological determinism or biology as ideology (something that has been termed "biologism"). The most famous book on the subject is Richard Lewontin's "Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA" [...]"

That's untrue. The "has been termed" with no subject is tricky: WHO has termed that thing in that way? Biologism IS NOT THAT. Rather, let me cite, for instance, the Merriam-Webster definition of "biologism":

biologism. Function: noun. Date: 1920 the use of biological explanations in the analysis of social situations

Certainly, in Lewontin's Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA, the word "biologism" does not occur even a single time. Not at all. Maybe Lewontin used it elsewhere, for instance in his fallacious Not in our genes, where he adulterated citations and also quoted words of respectable people out of context to make they say what they don't say. But there, he just uses it as a synonym of "biological determinism", which, as I have previously stated, is a strong mistake.

(OFF TOPIC: May I recall that book's titles are to be written in italics?)

GoodBiologism (talk) 16:31, 26 April 2008 (UTC)GoodBiologism