Can Science Resolve the Nature / Nurture Debate?

Margaret Lock is Marjorie Bronfman Professor Emerita in Social Studies of Medicine at McGill UniversityGisli Palsson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iceland

“We know that nature and nurture are entwined, but we often overlook the fact that neither science nor the humanities alone can resolve the nature/nurture debate. This accessible and clever book introduces the reader to recent discoveries in epigenetics and shows how the new horizons and hopes opened up by this field entail new responsibilities and new types of vigilance.”Eva Jablonka, Tel Aviv University“A cool appraisal of a turbulent field, this fine book exposes an unfolding saga of interdisciplinary dimensions. A radical shift is emerging in the conceptualization of the human body and its environment: the authors’ state-of-the-art climax is a message for everyone.”Marilyn Strathern, Girton College, Cambridge “Lock and Palsson reaffirm their critique of the dualistic thinking that has prevailed in the past two hundred years. The reader is left with the firm understanding that the biochemical promise of gene therapy is empty if it is not undertaken in tandem with measures to improve the nurturing role of the social and physical environment. […] It offers an all too brief but wonderful historical and contemporary overview of the nature/nurture debate from both perspectives and touches on some other interesting topics in the history of science.”Anthropological Forum “Beautifully written and elegantly argued, Margaret Lock and Gísli Pálsson’s reconstruction of the nature/nurture debate is a bright, very accessible introduction to a much-discussed topic.”Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

• Preamble: Beyond the Molecular Vision of Life1. Moveable Concepts: Nature and Nurture2. Promotion and Demotion of the Gene3. Reinstating Nurture: From Opposition to Commingling4. Accruing Biosocial Momentum5. Biopolitics for the Future