Word: lettering
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...letter by John Tooby (Dec. 12) run under the headline "Science for the People?" is typical of the arguments sociobiologists have used against the criticisms of human sociobiology raised by Science for the People(SftP) and many others. We welcome this opportunity for people to examine the merits of sociobiology and to witness the tactics sociobiologists resort to in an effort to defend their field from an increasing barrage of criticism...
...Tooby, while conceding that the criticisms leveled by (SftP) have "gained wide currency" and that in "slandering" sociobiology we "have met with some success," tries in his letter to salvage the theory from beneath the distortions which we have allegedly fostered. He begins by noting that the damage which we have done to sociobiology has been "abetted by sensationalistic treatments of the field by the media..."Let us deal with this statement, for it is quite remarkable...
Lastly, but not least, in Mr. Tooby's defense of sociobiology, he resorts to the time-honored tradition of red-baiting. If the technical inaccuracies in the body of his letter fail to raise questions about the nature of the theory he defends, then surely his slurs about radical politics should cause one to consider the substance of his reply. He states that inasmuch as there is not truth in our accusations, one must examine our ideology, which, according to him, places "class interest--or more simply, greed--as an explanation for why people behave as they...
...within a political context. We have shown how the attempt to "biologicize" social problems is not a new development, but rather another example in a long history of science being used as an instrument to justify and maintain oppressive social relations. The events which we noted in our original letter the the Crimson, of the vigorous application of sociobiological ideas in Europe to justify proposals for reactionary social measures, are thus not an aberration, but the logical outgrowth of a bad theory which is heir to a bad tradition...