"THE FACTS OF LIFE"
Sir,-I have not read C. O. Darlington’s The Facts of Life, but after reading "J.D. McD.’s" review of it, I should say it provides no end of entertainment for the reader who has an eye for fallacies. Darlington, a competent geneticist, expounds a biological view of history and a philosophy of determinism, because he feels that the facts of genetics leave him with no alternative. Genetic research reveals that individual plastic-
ity is an illusion and this disposes at one blow of Freud’s vitalism and those who talk of "free will,’ not to mention the sterile heredity versus environment controversy. This sort of thing reminds me of a Pekinese barking furiously at a big Alsatian. In other’ words, Darlington, a geneticist, is right out of ‘this class when he starts grappling with such problems as these. It is natural, I.suppose, that a biologist should be inclined to think that biology has the last word on everything. So biologists need to be reminded now and then that biology is a very lowly science and has nothing really pertinent to.say on such problems as the interpretation of history or man’s free will. These are philosophical problems and a competent biologist who grapples with them is in dire peril of revealing himself to be a most incompetent philosopher. Finally, I must say I found the succinct Darlington dilemma: "Promiscuity or Homosexuality" most amusing.
G.H.
D.
(Palmerston North).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 781, 9 July 1954, Page 5
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238"THE FACTS OF LIFE" New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 781, 9 July 1954, Page 5
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