Skip to main content
Log in

The Cultural Politics of the Sociobiology Debate

  • Published:
Journal of the History of Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The sociobiology debate, in the final quarterof the twentieth century, featured many of thesame issues disputed in the culture war in thehumanities during this same time period. This isevident from a study of the writings of EdwardO. Wilson, the best known of thesociobiologists, and from an examination ofboth the minutes of the meetings of theSociobiology Study Group (SSG) and the writingsof Stephen Jay Gould, the SSG's most prominentmember. Many critics of sociobiology,frequently radical scientists who were attachedto the lineage of the New Left, argued for thesame multicultural values promoted by radicalhumanities professors in this period.Conversely, liberal sociobiologists defendedthe universalist values of the liberals in the humanities.

Those scholars whose work was important beforethe cultural revolution in the 1960s wereusually committed to a liberal universalismthat emphasized the similarity between people.Younger scholars, who took faculty positions inthe 1970s and after, were more likely to owe anallegiance to an ethnos-centered social visionthat valued identity politics. The strugglebetween these two agendas, more intellectualthan generational, was at the core of theculture wars both in the humanities and in thesciences. The sociobiology debate should beviewed in this light.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baxter, A. K. 1974. “Women's Studies and American Studies: The Uses of the Interdisciplinary.” American Quarterly 26(4).

  • Beckwith, J. 1986. “The Radical Science Movement in the United States.” Monthly Review 38(3): 118–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beckwith, J. 2001. Email to the author, February 23.

  • Begley, S. 1999. “Three is Not Enough.” In The Biological Basis of Human Behavior, 2nd edn., ed. R. Sussman, pp. 193–196. Prentice Hall.

  • Blair, J. G. 1978. “Structuralism, American Studies, and the Humanities.” American Quarterly 30(3).

  • Carson, C. 1981. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. Harvard University Press.

  • “Chapter Reports.” 1973. Science for the People 5(3): 42.

  • Cohen, R. 1978. “Ethnicity: Problem and Focus in Anthropology.” Annual Review of Anthropology 7: 379.

    Google Scholar 

  • Croly, H. 1965 (1909). The Promise of American Life. Harvard University Press.

  • Degler, C. 1991. In Search of Human Nature. Oxford University Press.

  • Delbanco, A. 1999. “The Decline and Fall of Literature.” New York Review of Books (November 4th): 32–38.

  • Evans, S. 1979. Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left. Knopf.

  • Forcey, C. 1961. The Crossroads of Liberalism. Oxford University Press.

  • Fox, H. 1970. “SESPA: A History.” Science for the People 2(4): 2–3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, S. J. 1977. Ever Since Darwin. Norton.

  • ―1985. The Flamingo's Smile. Norton.

  • ―1987. An Urchin in the Storm. Norton.

  • ―1996. Full House. Three Rivers Press.

  • Greeley, K. and S. Tafler. 1979. “Science for the People — CA Ten Year Retrospective.” Science for the People 11(1): 18–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. J. 1975. “The Transformation of the Left in Science: Radical Associations in Britain in the 30s and the USA in the 60s.” Soundings 58: 441–462.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higham, J. 1993. “Multiculturalism and Universalism: A History and Critique.” American Quarterly 45(2): 195–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollinger, D. 1975. “Ethnic Diversity, Cosmopolitanism and the Emergence of the American Liberal Intelligentsia.” American Quarterly 27(2).

  • ―1995. Postethnic America. Basic Books.

  • Horsman, R. 1975. “Scientific Racism and the American Indian in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.” American Quarterly 27(2).

  • Jay, G. 1997. American Literature and the Culture Wars. Cornell University Press.

  • Jumonville, N. 1999. Henry Steele Commager: Midcentury Liberalism and the History of the Present. University of North Carolina Press.

  • Karcher, C. L. 1975. “Melville's 'The Gees': A Forgotten Satire on Scientific Racism.” American Quarterly 27(4).

  • Kaye, H. L. 1986. The Social Meaning of Modern Biology. Yale University Press.

  • Konner, M. 1999. “Darwin's Truth, Jefferson's Vision.” American Prospect (July-August): 30–38.

  • Lewontin, R. 1974a. The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. Columbia University Press.

  • ―1974b. “A New Battle in an Old War.” Science for the People (March): 5–7.

  • ―1976. “Race and Intelligence.” I.Q.: Scientific or Social Controversy? (February): 32–38. (Special pamphlet prepared by Science for the People.)

  • ―1982a. “Are the Races Different?” Science for the People (March-April): 10–14.

  • ―1982b. Human Diversity. Scientific American Library.

  • ―1991. Biology as Ideology. Toronto: Anansi.

  • Lewontin, R., S. Rose and L. Kamin. 1984. Not in Our Genes. Pantheon.

  • Linenthal, E. T. and T. Engelhardt, eds. 1996. History Wars. Metropolitan Books.

  • Magazine Coordinating Committee. 1974. “Future Directions for Science for the People.” Science for the People 6(4): 37–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLoughlin, W. G. 1974. “Red Indians, Black Slavery, and White Racism: America's Slaveholding Indians.” American Quarterly 26(4).

  • Miller, J. 1987. Democracy is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago. Simon and Schuster.

  • Moore, K. 1996. “Organizing Integrity: American Science and the Creation of Public Interest Organizations, 1955-1975.” American Journal of Sociology 101(6): 1592–1627.

    Google Scholar 

  • Novick, P. 1988. That Noble Dream. Cambridge University Press.

  • Ruse, M. 1999. Mystery of Mysteries. Harvard University Press.

  • Sahlins, M. 1976. The Use and Abuse of Biology. University of Michigan Press.

  • Saxton, A. 1975. “Blackface Minstrelsy and Jacksonian Ideology.” American Quarterly 27(1).

  • Schlesinger, A. Jr. 1992. The Disuniting of America. Norton.

  • Schwartz, B. 1986. The Battle for Human Nature. Norton.

  • Searle, J. 1990. “The Storm Over the University.” New York Review of Books (December 6th): 34–42.

  • Segerstrale, U. 2000. Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond. Oxford University Press.

  • Shumsky, N. L. 1975. “Zangwill's The Melting Pot: Ethnic Tensions on Stage.” American Quarterly 27(1).

  • Sociobiology Study Group. 1975-1980. Minutes of Bi-Weekly Meetings. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Freda Salzman Papers.

  • Stage, S. J. 1975. “Out of the Attic: Studies of Victorian Sexuality.” American Quarterly 27(4).

  • Washburn, W. E. 1975. “American Indian Studies: A Status Report.” American Quarterly 27(3).

  • Wilson, E. O. 1975. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Harvard University Press.

  • ―1978. On Human Nature. Harvard University Press.

  • ―1994. Naturalist. Island Press.

  • ―1998. Consilience. Knopf.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jumonville, N. The Cultural Politics of the Sociobiology Debate. Journal of the History of Biology 35, 569–593 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021190227056

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021190227056

Navigation