Making Sense of Heritability

Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology

by Neven Sesardić

Neven Sesardic defends the view that it is both possible and useful to measure the separate contributions of heredity and environment to the explanation of human psychological differences. He critically examines the view--very widely accepted by scientists, social scientists and philosophers of science--that heritability estimates have no causal implications and are devoid of any interest and subjects the arguments to close philosophical scrutiny. His conclusion is that anti-heritability arguments are based on conceptual confusions and misunderstandings of behavioral genetics.

Genres: Science, Genetics, Philosophy, Biology, Evolution, Psychology, Nonfiction

282 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Croatian philosopher.

Reviews

[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hmmm... it grew on me. Good book.

When I started reading this book I thought it was about genetics - it's not. It is about terrible but popular scientist writers/philosophers talking about things they know basically nothing about. So, why would you want to read about terrible "scientists" like Gould and Lewontin making things up or calling other scientists racist to win an argument? Why read about the same pseudoscientists making the same mistakes over and over again? Well, I think it's important to be reminded of the current state of genetic and biological science. And the truth is that many of the most popular science writers know very little about science but a lot about politics and propaganda. And many universities have whole groups that are anti modern science - but pro post-modern science. So yeah, this is an important book on the debate. But I was very negative about it the first 150 pages as I expected a book about genetics. The title is crap.



Edit:

I had to fix the review. OMG! I was a horrid writer back then. I just fixed a few errors here and there and will need to do so in many other old reviews. Back then I just wrote fast and didn't read my reviews.

[Yoss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neven Sesardić diagnoses what can only be described as professional malpractice on the part of philosophers of science past and present. As is profusely documented by the author, there is a tendency among philosophers of science to dismiss the view known as hereditarianism as conceptually hopeless, indeed, so conceptually hopeless that ostensibly intelligent proponents of it are soon accused of harboring not a legitimate scientific/philosophical interest, but a nefarious political motive or goal.

The author convincingly shows that this blanket rejection is not the result of having subjected the hereditarian account to careful scrutiny, but rather the result of having attacked mere crude caricatures of it, committed blatant fallacies, and assiduously engaged in the (unfortunately all too successful) enterprise of stifling debate by accusing one's opponents of moral failure and imputing nasty political goals to their endeavors.

Read it, if only to be disabused of the notion that "consensus among experts in the field" is a particularly reliable guide to truth.

[ZeitPolizei · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting something along the lines of a textbook for heritability but the book mainly deals with environmentalists' arguments against heritability of psychological traits in humans (e.g. IQ) and why those arguments are wrong. The technical explanations of heritability aren't that great (mostly too short for my taste, but I guess that's on me for expecting something that this book is not) and the deconstruction of the others' arguments get old fast and just aren't all that interesting.

The main things I learned from this book (or that I knew before and were confirmed):
- I feel like I now have a decent grasp on what heritability actually is.
- IQ is highly heritable (0.75 seems to be a reasonable estimate)
- the non-genetic influences of IQ differences are mainly non-shared environment (meaning you can't substantially increase someone's IQ by raising them better or putting them in a better school)
- differences in IQ between races is to a large part genetic
- The idea that there are genetically caused differences in IQ between races was so taboo in the second half of the 20th century that a lot of people who really should have known better said a lot of stupid things about heritability. Even Dawkins and Dennett don't make the best impression. Unfortunately the book is already over 10 years old (published 2005), and I would be interested whether the discussion around the topic has gotten any better.

[Tobias Wolfram · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a magnificient book. I would have liked a little bit more discussion on GxE in the chapter on malleability but overall I learned a tremendous amount from it, especially with respect to the true relevance of reactive rGE.

[Alek · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think everyone has lost their mind on this subject, rest assured there are still principled scientists and philosophers that don't succumb to social desirability bias.

[Sass · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title and description could fool you into thinking this is a textbook on behavioral genetics, but it absolutely isnt! It's a methedological defense of the heritability concept. Reading this made me really sad, how academics could make such an obvious comedy of errors while also having basically mainstream acceptance is bewildering.