... as why they are not: Why Are People So Nice? (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I can't imagine many people denying that there is a genetic component to our behaviour, but from what I have read lately on the subject, the connection actually does seem to be complex rather than simple - just as Shakespeare's plays are more complex than the alphabet from which the playwright derived his words. Surely there are instances of over-simplification - and Richard Dawkins often seems a master of such.
You are right about the complexities, Frank. There are too few genes in a genome, we have found out (via people like your friend Francis C.) So there is lots of "post translational modification". ie as-yet unexplained complexity.
ReplyDeleteOr to look at it from the other end, there are very few "single gene" diseases. Huntingdon's chorea is one, cystic fibrosis another. But most diseases are controlled by a combination of several genes or groups of genes, and environmental factors. It will take a long time, if ever, to sort it all out, I fear.