Re: Race: real or imagined? (fwd)

Perhaps I was too circumspect in my post, but my comments were not
addressed to you, and I happen to agree with the points made below.  I
have not suggested that sociobiology as presently constituted is not
inherently ideological, quite the contrary.  I can only add that in the
present context, the presence of "progressive" sociobiologists would not
change my assessment, because I don't see how an argument that social
equality is genetically dictated, for instance, would make sociobiology 
any less determinist or ideological.

On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 md7148@cnsvax.albany.edu wrote:

> 
> Boris, please give some examples or specific names. only then,
> can we clarify this problem. I have not met a progressive socio-biologist
> yet. may be, you can help me find one. In fact, critics of socio-biology
> dicipline are associated with biologists like Richard Lewontin and Stephen
> Gould. ONE DOES NOT NEED TO BE ANTI-SCIENCE TO BE AGAINST SOCIO-BIOLOGY.
> 
> you seem to suggest that socio-biology is not inherently ideological. are
> you sure about this? Are Wilson, Peterson, Dawkins, Rushton, Levin the
> accidental products of socio-biology dicipline? or is there a problem with
> the assumptions of the dicipline itself? how do you draw the line
> between ideology and science ("emprical confirmation") in socio-biology?
> Unfortunately, it seems very hard, me thinks. 
> 
> good night,
> 
> Mine
> 
> 
> >It is testament to the high level of this debate that people first pick
> >fights in order to then regurgitate past profundities.  What we have here
> >is a persistent failure to distinguish between disciplinary entities with
> >an explicit political agenda and individual theories which receive
> >empirical confirmation.  To say a rejection of sociobiology
> >necessarily constitutes a rejection of all research by sociobiologists is
> >the same as saying that an anti-Darwinist rejects the theory of evolution
> >(A.R. Wallace, a cofounder of said theory, was an anti-Darwinist).
> 
> 

-- 
Boris Stremlin
bc70219@binghamton.edu