Genetic determinism and the innate-acquired distinction
Medicine Studies 1 (2):167-181 (2009)
| Abstract | This article illustrates in which sense genetic determinism is still part of the contemporary interactionist consensus in medicine. Three dimensions of this consensus are discussed: kinds of causes, a continuum of traits ranging from monogenetic diseases to car accidents, and different kinds of determination due to different norms of reaction. On this basis, this article explicates in which sense the interactionist consensus presupposes the innate?acquired distinction. After a descriptive Part 1, Part 2 reviews why the innate?acquired distinction is under attack in contemporary philosophy of biology. Three arguments are then presented to provide a limited and pragmatic defense of the distinction: an epistemic, a conceptual, and a historical argument. If interpreted in a certain manner, and if the pragmatic goals of prevention and treatment (ideally specifying what medicine and health care is all about) are taken into account, then the innate?acquired distinction can be a useful epistemic tool. It can help, first, to understand that genetic determination does not mean fatalism, and, second, to maintain a system of checks and balances in the continuing nature?nurture debates. | |||||||||
| Keywords | genetic determinism fatalism parity thesis norm of reaction medicine genetic disease geneticization innate-acquired distinction | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesKathryn Paxton George (1992). Moral and Nonmoral Innate Constraints. Biology and Philosophy 7 (2):189-202.
Lisa Gannett (1999). What's in a Cause?: The Pragmatic Dimensions of Genetic Explanations. Biology and Philosophy 14 (3).
William C. Wimsatt (1986). Developmental Constraints, Generative Entrenchment, and the Innate-Acquired Distinction. In William Bechtel (ed.), Integrating Scientific Disciplines.
Ephedyn L. Lin (2012). On Innate Notions of Linguistic Knowledge. Dissertation, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Slobodan Perovic & Ljiljana Radenovic (2011). Fine-Tuning Nativism: The 'Nurtured Nature' and Innate Cognitive Structures. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10 (3):399-417.
James Maclaurin (2006). The Innate / Acquired Distinction. In Sahotra Sarkar & Jessica Pfeifer (eds.), The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia. Routledge.
André Pichot (1993). Héréditaire, Inné, Génétique, Etc. Acta Biotheoretica 41 (1-2).
Paul Griffiths, The Distinction Between Innate and Acquired Characteristics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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