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词条 A Troublesome Inheritance
释义

  1. Summary

  2. Reception

  3. Response

  4. References

{{Infobox book
|name = A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History
|image=File:A Troublesome Inheritance.jpg
|caption =
|border = yes
|author = Nicholas Wade
|country = United States
|subjects = Race
Human evolution
|publisher = Penguin Books
|published = 2014
|media_type = Print
|isbn = 978-1594204463
|language = English
}}A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History is a 2014 book by British writer and journalist Nicholas Wade, a retired science reporter for The New York Times.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Wade argues that "human evolution has been recent, copious and regional"[7] and that this has important implications for the social sciences.[8] The book has been widely denounced by scientists.[9][10]

Summary

Wade writes about racial differences in economic success between whites, blacks, East Asians and offers the argument that racial differences come from genetic differences amplified by culture. In the first part of the book, Wade provides an account of human genetics research. In the second part of his book, Wade proposes that regional differences in evolution of social behavior explain many differences among different human societies around the world.[11]

Reception

Critical reviewers state that Wade goes beyond scientific consensus.[9][11][12][13][14][15][16] Evolutionary biologist H. Allen Orr wrote in his review in The New York Review of Books that "Wade's survey of human population genomics is lively and generally serviceable. It is not, however, without error. He exaggerates, for example, the percentage of the human genome that shows evidence of recent natural selection."[17][18] Orr comments that, in its second part, "the book resembles a heavily biological version of Francis Fukuyama's claims about the effect of social institutions on the fates of states in his The Origins of Political Order (2011)."[17]

Orr further comments that:

Wade also thinks that "evolutionary differences between societies on the various continents may underlie major and otherwise imperfectly explained turning points in history such as the rise of the West and the decline of the Islamic world and China." Here, and especially in his treatment of why the industrial revolution flourished in England, his book leans heavily on Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms (2007).[17]

Orr criticizes Wade for failing to provide sufficient evidence for his claims, though according to Orr, Wade concedes that evidence for his thesis is "nearly nonexistent."[17]

The book has not been well received by much of the scientific community, including many of the scientists upon whose work the book was based. On 8 August 2014, The New York Times Book Review published an open letter signed by over 139 faculty members in population genetics and evolutionary biology. The letter read:

As discussed by Dobbs and many others, Wade juxtaposes an incomplete and inaccurate account of our research on human genetic differences with speculation that recent natural selection has led to worldwide differences in I.Q. test results, political institutions and economic development. We reject Wade's implication that our findings substantiate his guesswork. They do not.
We are in full agreement that there is no support from the field of population genetics for Wade's conjectures.[9][10]

Mark Jobling, one of the signatories to the letter, subsequently wrote an opinion piece in the peer-reviewed journal Investigative Genetics explaining why the book had "aroused the ire of this dusty community of academics".[19]

The book was further criticized in a series of five reviews by Agustín Fuentes, Jonathan M. Marks, Jennifer Raff, Charles C. Roseman and Laura R. Stein which were published together in the scientific journal Human Biology.[20] The publishers made all the reviews accessible on open access in order to facilitate discussions on the subject.[21]

The libertarian conservative political scientist Charles Murray, coauthor of The Bell Curve, wrote a more favorable review in The Wall Street Journal.[22] Murray wrote:

The discoveries Mr. Wade reports, that genetic variation clusters along racial and ethnic lines and that extensive evolution has continued ever since the exodus from Africa, are based on the genotype, and no one has any scientific reason to doubt their validity. And yet, as of 2014, true believers in the orthodoxy still dominate the social science departments of the nation's universities. I expect that their resistance to "A Troublesome Inheritance" will be fanatical, because accepting its account will be seen, correctly, as a cataclysmic surrender on some core premises of political correctness.

Response

In an open letter to the New York Times, the book was denounced by over 139 professors of biology and genetics.[9][10] In reply to the open letter published in The New York Times Book Review, Wade wrote, "This letter is driven by politics, not science. I am confident that most of the signatories have not read my book and are responding to a slanted summary devised by the organizers." Wade added that he had asked the letter's authors (Graham Coop and Michael Eisen) for a list of errors so that he could correct future editions of the book.[23] On 19 August 2014, Stanford University Professor Marcus Feldman, one of the signatories to the letter, critiqued Wade's book, linking the book's controversial intellectual heritage to the claims of Arthur Jensen, Richard Herrnstein, and Charles Murray.[24]

References

1. ^{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/books/nicholas-wades-a-troublesome-inheritance.html|title=Charging Into the Minefield of Genes and Racial Difference: Nicholas Wade's 'A Troublesome Inheritance'|last=Allen|first=Arthur|date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|newspaper=The New York Times|accessdate=2014-05-15}}
2. ^{{cite news |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303380004579521482247869874 |title=Book Review: A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade |first=Charles |last=Murray |authorlink=Charles Murray (political scientist) |date=2 May 2014 |accessdate=3 May 2014}}
3. ^{{cite news |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/race-is-more-than-a-social-construct/article18571418/ |title=What if race is more than a social construct? |first=Margaret |last=Wente |authorlink=Margaret Wente |accessdate=2014-05-10}}
4. ^{{cite news |magazine=Slate |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/05/troublesome_inheritance_critique_nicholas_wade_s_dated_assumptions_about.single.html |title=The Paradox of Racism |first=Andrew |last=Gelman |authorlink=Andrew Gelman |accessdate=2014-05-10}}
5. ^{{cite news |magazine=In These Times |url=http://inthesetimes.com/article/16674/the_genes_made_us_do_it |first=Jonathan |last=Marks |authorlink=Jonathan M. Marks |title=The Genes Made Us Do It |accessdate=2014-05-14}}
6. ^{{cite web |website=Why Evolution is True |url=http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/new-book-on-race-by-nicholas-wade-professor-ceiling-cat-says-paws-down/ |first=Jerry |last=Coyne |authorlink=Jerry Coyne |title=New book on race by Nicholas Wade: Professor Ceiling Cat says paws down |accessdate=2014-05-14 |quote=It is an irresponsible book that makes insupportable claims.}}
7. ^{{cite news|magazine=The Daily Caller |url=http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/10/30-year-new-york-times-science-writer-out-after-writing-book-about-genetics-race/ |title=New York Times Science Reporter Pens Book Linking Genetics, Race |first=Chris |last=Reed |accessdate=2014-05-10}}
8. ^{{cite news|magazine=Scientific American |url=http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2014/05/13/genes-and-race-the-distant-footfalls-of-evidence// |title=Genes and Race: The Distant Footfalls of Evidence |first=Ashutosh |last=Jogalekar |accessdate=2014-05-14}}
9. ^{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/books/review/a-troublesome-inheritance-and-inheritance.html|title=Sunday Book Review: The Fault in Our DNA: 'A Troublesome Inheritance' and 'Inheritance'|last=Dobbs|first=David|date=10 July 2014|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|page=BR11|quote=He constantly gathers up long shots, speculations and spurious claims, then declares they add up to substantiate his case. The result is a deeply flawed, deceptive and dangerous book.|ref=harv|newspaper=The New York Times|accessdate=25 September 2014}}
10. ^{{cite web |last1=Coop |first1=Graham |last2=Eisen |first2=Michael |last3=Nielsen |first3=Rasmus |last4=Przeworski |first4=Molly |last5=Rosenberg |first5=Noah |title=Letter to the Editor of the New York Times Book Review (Letter from Population Geneticists) |date=8 August 2014 |url=http://cehg.stanford.edu/letter-from-population-geneticists/ |accessdate=25 September 2014 |quote=We are in full agreement that there is no support from the field of population genetics for Wade’s conjectures. |ref=harv}}
11. ^Feldman, M. (2014). Echoes of the Past: Hereditarianism and A Troublesome Inheritance. PLoS Genetics, 10(12), e1004817.
12. ^{{cite journal |last=Orr |first=H. Allen |date=5 June 2014 |title=Stretch Genes |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jun/05/stretch-genes/ |journal=New York Review of Books |publisher=New York Review of Books |doi= |access-date=17 May 2014 |quote=A Troublesome Inheritance goes beyond reporting scientific facts or accepted theories and finds Wade championing bold ideas that fall outside any scientific consensus. ... Hard evidence for Wade’s thesis is nearly nonexistent. Odder still, Wade concedes as much at the start of A Troublesome Inheritance: 'Readers should be fully aware that in chapters 6 through 10 they are leaving the world of hard science and entering into a much more speculative arena at the interface of history, economics and human evolution.' |ref=harv }}
13. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/american-anthropological-association/review-of-a-troublesome-i_b_5316217.html |title=Review of A Troublesome Inheritance |first=Jonathan |last=Marks |authorlink=Jonathan M. Marks |date=14 May 2014 |work=American Anthropological Association blog |publisher=Huffington Post |access-date=15 May 2014 |quote=Wade's ambition, then, is not to popularize the science, but to invalidate the science. |ref=harv}}
14. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/05/troublesome_inheritance_critique_nicholas_wade_s_dated_assumptions_about.html |title=The Paradox of Racism: Why the new book by the New York Times' Nicholas Wade is both plausible and preposterous |first=Andrew |last=Gelman |authorlink=Andrew Gelman |date=8 May 2014 |work=Slate The State of the Universe science blog |publisher=Slate |access-date=15 May 2014 |quote=As a statistician and political scientist, I see naivete in Wade’s quickness to assume a genetic association for any change in social behavior. |ref=harv}}
15. ^{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2014/05/08/genetics-evolution-and-race/ |title=Nicholas Wade's 'A Troublesome Inheritance': race, genes and success |first=Brent |last=Bambury |work=CBC Radio: Day 6 |publisher=CBC Radio |date=8 May 2014 |ref=harv}}
16. ^{{cite journal |last=Laden |first=Greg |title=A Troubling Tome |journal=American Scientist |volume=102 |issue=4 |year=2014 |page=309 |issn=0003-0996 |doi=10.1511/2014.109.309 |quote=Ultimately, Wade claims that modern anthropology ignores key scientific information for political reasons, yet his own arguments are only thinly supported by data, and much of the data he does reference isn’t rigorous. To his credit, he refutes certain racist notions associated with the idea of genetic determinism, and he speaks against social Darwinism and similar concepts. But if that verbiage were excised, his book would fit comfortably in the early to mid-20th century literature on race and human variation. A Troublesome Inheritance is itself troubling, not for its politics but for its science. Its arguments are only mildly amended versions of arguments discarded decades ago by those who methodically and systematically study human behavioral variation across cultures. |ref=harv}}
17. ^{{cite journal |last=Orr |first=H. Allen |date=5 June 2014 |title=Stretch Genes |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jun/05/stretch-genes/ |journal=New York Review of Books |publisher=New York Review of Books |doi= |access-date=17 May 2014 |ref=harv }}
18. ^{{cite book |last=Wade |first=Nicholas |title=A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hPp4AgAAQBAJ |date=6 May 2014 |publisher=Penguin Group US |isbn=978-1-59420-446-3 |laysummary=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jun/05/stretch-genes/ |laysource=New York Review of Books |laydate=9 September 2014 |page=2 |ref=harv}}
19. ^Jobling M (September 2014). Trouble at the Races. Investigative Genetics 2014; 5:14. doi:10.1186/2041-2223-5-14.
20. ^Human Biology 2014; 86 (3).
21. ^Human Biology reviews "A Troublesome Inheritance". Wayne State University Press News, 27 April 2015.
22. ^{{cite news |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303380004579521482247869874 |title=Book Review: A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade |first=Charles |last=Murray |authorlink=Charles Murray (political scientist) |date=2 May 2014 |access-date=3 May 2014 |quote=Its proper reception would mean enduring fame as the book that marked a turning point in social scientists' willingness to explore the way the world really works. But there is a depressing alternative: that social scientists will continue to predict planetary movements using Ptolemaic equations, as it were, and that their refusal to come to grips with "A Troublesome Inheritance" will be seen a century from now as proof of this era's intellectual corruption.}}
23. ^nature.com, August 2014
24. ^{{cite web |url= http://stanfordcehg.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/echoes-of-the-past-hereditarianism-and-a-troublesome-inheritance/ |title= Echoes of the Past: Hereditarianism and A Troublesome Inheritance |first=Marcus |last=Feldman |publisher=Stanford CEHG |date=19 August 2014 |ref=harv}}
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9 : 2014 non-fiction books|Books about evolution|Books about human intelligence|Books about race and ethnicity|Books about wealth distribution|Books by Nicholas Wade|English-language books|Penguin Books books|Race and intelligence controversy

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