Richard Lewontin has died
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He died on 4 July at the age of 92. He was an evolutionary biologist who did much to expose racial classification and biological deteminism as unscientific. He was one of the co-authors of the book Not in Our Genes that came out in 1984 when “sociobiogists” and other biological determinsts were running riot. Claims that there’s a gene for this and a gene for that are, however, unfortnately still circulating.
From the obituary is today’s Times:
“In his 1972 paper The Apportionment of Human Diversity, Lewontin analysed genetic data derived from blood groups to show that, in fact, the vast majority of genetic diversity occurred within racial groups, while only 7 per cent occurred between them. This result was counter-intuitive, in that it implied that even though a Japanese man might look very different from a Swedish man, they were genetcally very similar. The corollary of this, Lewontin argued, was that ‘human racial classification is of no social value and is positively destructive of social and human relations.'”
As to E.0. Wilson and his “Sociobiology”:
“He took issue with Wilson’s suggestion that humans, like ants, behaved the way they did simply because it was encoded in their genes to do so.Lewontin was a Marxist who beieved that human behaviour was in large part shaped by unfair yet malleable power structures. He loathed what he saw as Wilson’s implication that these power structures were somehow natural.”
Wilson and his ilk’s biological determinism is also dealt with in our pamphlet Are We Prisoners of Our Genes? (answer: No).
I am not sure what sort of “Marxist” he was. Some sort of Maoist? Anybody know if he was associated with a particular group and, if so, which? Not that there is any such thing as a “Marxist biology” or that biologists as biologists use such terms as “unfair”. There is only scientifically-validated biology which happens to show that there is nothing in the biological make-up of humas that would prevent them living in a classless, co-operative society.
Meanwhile, here’s a couple of other obituaries, from the New York Times and Socialist Worker.
He did a very good job by rejecting the concept that our brain is wired and predispose to act in a certain way like the animals, which sounds like the concept of the predestination of the Calvinists Like Engels wrote that some scientists are materialists in their laboratories and metaphysical in their personal life. He is one of the founders of Celular and Molecular Biology. I think he was a Maoist
https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/52079/Richard+Lewontin+the+Marxist+geneticist
https://www.revcom.us/a/709/richard-lewontin-a-remembrance-en.html
His works as a ‘Marxist” has proven that the so-called ethnic, genders, and races movement does not have any socialist or Marxist foundation, he demonstrated that races do not have any biological origin that they are socially constructed, and it is a tool used by the ruling class to keep workers divided according to the colors of their skin
https://www.pressenza.com/2021/08/remembering-the-great-scientific-crusader-who-showed-that-no-biological-basis-for-race-exists-richard-lewontin/Remembering the Great Scientific Crusader Who Showed That No Biological Basis for Race Exists—Richard Lewontin
By Prabir Purkayastha
On July 4, Richard Lewontin, the dialectical biologist, Marxist and activist, died at the age of 92, just three days after the death of his wife of more than 70 years, Mary Jane. He was one of the founders of modern biology who brought together three different disciplines—statistics, molecular biology and evolutionary biology—that mark the discipline today. In doing so, he not only battled crude racism masquerading as science, but also helped shed light on what science really is. In this sense, he belongs to the rare group of scientists who are equally at home in the laboratory and while talking about science and ideology at a philosophical level. Lewontin is a popular exponent of what science is, and more pertinently, what it is not.
Lewontin always harked back to what being radical means: going back to fundamentals in deriving a viewpoint. This method is important, as it makes radical inquiry a powerful tool in science, compared to lazier ways of relating positions to certain class viewpoints. What is the relation between genes and race, class, or gender? Does social superiority spring from superior genes, or from biological differences between the sexes? As a Marxist and activist, Lewontin believed that we need to fight at both levels: to expose class, race and gender stereotypes as a reflection of power within society, and also at the level of radical science, meaning from the fundamentals of scientific theory and data.
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