Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 45.1 (2002) 141-144

Book Review

Thinking about Evolution:
Historical, Philosophical, and Political Perspectives

Richard Lewontin, who has just retired from his post as professor of genetics at Harvard University, is a fascinating subject. For the first half of his career, until 1975 (about the time he went to Harvard), he was a brilliantly successful scientist.The top student of the founder of the synthetic theory of evolution, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Lewontin had mathematical and experimental skills that outstripped anyone in his mentor's group. More than this, Lewontin moved with ease into the molecular era, being one who led the development and exploitation of the technique of gel electrophoresis. By 1974, with the publication of his Columbia Jesup lectures, The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change, Lewontin stood at the peak of the biological world. Then he got embroiled in the attack on human sociobiology, and for the next quarter century we got virtually no science whatsoever. He maintained a very large lab with lots of students, and he became a kind of guru to the philosophy of biology community. But as an active, productive scientist, Lewontin dropped out.

There are those who see this second half of his career as indicative of the apotheosis of moral and scientific integrity: an ardent Marxist, Lewontin saw [End Page 141] difficulties--contradictions--in the science of his discipline, and he could go no further.There are those who think otherwise: Lewontin could not stand the heat, especially as the sociobiologists forged forward and he was left carping from the sideline. And there are those like me, who simply do not know. As with the existence of God, some days I think one way, and other days I think another way, and most days I sit on the fence and think nothing.The publication of a Festschrift in Lewontin's honor, with a lengthy interview of Lewontin himself by trained historians and philosophers, might therefore seem the time when the full truth would be revealed and the man himself would emerge from behind the veil.

Thinking about Evolution: Historical, Philosophical, and Political Perspectives--which incidentally is the second of two volumes celebrating Lewontin's achievements (an earlier volume was devoted to pure science)--certainly attests to the love and respect with which Lewontin is regarded.The cream of the philosophy of biology community--many of whom look back to happy sabbaticals spent in Lewontin's lab--write on topics that have engaged them and Lewontin. You will find Elliott Sober on fitness, Philip Kitcher on genetic determinism, and Elisabeth Lloyd on levels of selection. You will also find Stephen Jay Gould on hierarchies, Steven Rose on reductionism, and the brilliant historian of Nazi science Robert Proctor on cancer research. There is much grist here for the mills of the historians and philosophers of science.

But what of the Lewontin interview, conducted by Diane Paul, John Beatty, and Costas Krimbas? Let me be fair and complimentary.There is a huge amount in it which is absolutely fascinating, as we follow Lewontin's career as an active scientist, from his early days as Dobzhansky's student up through the ranks to the top of his field. In itself, the interview is of much value not just for Lewontin himself, but also for the history of evolutionary biology at a crucial point in its development. Yet, this said, the interview is sadly disappointing and non-revealing, giving the impression that the subject manipulated his interlocutors and gave out just what he wanted, no more and no less, and in the very form and manner that he wanted. Interestingly, in the introduction to this volume, the editors themselves show that Lewontin is a complex man, for they quote a letter from Dobzhansky to Lewontin bemoaning how unkindly the student treats his teacher, and then they quote other material showing...