A Companion to Genethics
A Companion to GenethicsA Companion to Genethics, a recent volume in the "Blackwell Companions to Philosophy" series, offers a lengthy survey of problems characteristic of genetic research and therapy. The volume is comprised of 34 articles, mostly 10-15 pages in lengt…
A Companion to Genethics
A Companion to Genethics, a recent volume in the "Blackwell Companions to Philosophy" series, offers a lengthy survey of problems charac…
A Natural History of Rape
A Natural History of RapeIn a book surrounded by vitriolic controversy since its publication in February, 2000, Drs Randy Thornhill (Department of Biology, University of New Mexi…
Acquiring Genomes
Acquiring GenomesAcquiring Genomes by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan is a well-argued, lucid book about evolutionary theory that is accessible to the non-specialis…
Alas, Poor Darwin
Alas, Poor DarwinIn Alas, Poor Darwin Stephen Jay Gould writes that "Humans are animals and the mind evolved; therefore, all curious people must support the ques…
Are We Hardwired?
Are We Hardwired?The authors present extensive but concise descriptions and interpretations of recent experiments and observations bearing on the influence on behavior in or…
Beyond Evolution
Beyond EvolutionCertain practices made possible by research in biotechnology bring about big changes in the way we perceive and interact with the natural world. In fact, th…
Body Bazaar
Body BazaarIn 1914 Justice Benjamin Cardozo uttered an oft-quoted sentence that might well be regarded as the most simple and powerful statement in support of patie…
Brain Evolution and Cognition
Brain Evolution and CognitionPerhaps the first thing that should be said about this book is that it does not make for light reading. All nineteen essays composing Brain Evolution…
Brave New Brain
Brave New BrainNancy Andreason, Andrew H. Woods Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa, should need little introduction. She is Editor-in-Chief…
Brave New Worlds
Brave New WorldsIn this book Brian Appleyard faces squarely the idea that it may be possible for humans to be no longer human in the genetic future. That is, it may bec…
Choosing Children
Choosing ChildrenIt has now been over twenty years since Jonathan Glover published What Sort of People Should There Be, which explored the then brand ne…
Clone
CloneLooking for an accessible guide to cloning together with sex, scandal, a putative hoax, a fraud claim, counterclaims, industrial secrets and a cast of ma…
Cloning
CloningA clone is a genetic replica of an organism, with a genome identical to that of its progenitor (or of one of them), because it was duplicated or transferred…
Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology
Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary BiologyThe third edition of Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology is welcome. This anthology covers a wide variety of subjects concerning the philo…
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Controlling Our Destinies
Controlling Our DestiniesBuilding on a conference at Notre Dame in 1995, this anthology explores some of the philosophic and theological questions stirred by The Human Genome Pro…
Darwinian Psychiatry
Darwinian PsychiatryAt root, Darwinian Psychiatry represents a encyclopedic, ambitious, and well-argued attempt to convince its readers that the field of psychiatry w…
Darwinism and its Discontents
Darwinism and its DiscontentsCharles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, first published in 1859, had two principal goals: to provide evidence that species had not been c…
Debating Design
Debating DesignThe anatomy of man is a key to the anatomy of ape." Karl Marx (Introd. to a Contrib. to a Critique of Polit. Economy, 1957) …
Decoding Darkness
Decoding DarknessThe dementia seen in Alzheimer's patients is the manifestation of severe neurodegeneration - brain cell death. Classically, Alzheimer's has been diagnosed o…
Defenders of the Truth
Defenders of the TruthDefenders of the Truth is truly an epic tale of intrigue, passion, adventure, and the pursuit of knowledge. The author has meticulously presented an…
Engineering the Human Germline
Engineering the Human GermlineThis is a bizarre book. One reason is that the technological possibilities of germline engineering it presents go far beyond the usual hints one receives in…
Enough
EnoughBill McKibben's book is about the challenges, indeed threats, posed by advances in medical engineering, especially genetic or "germline" engine…
Entwined Lives
Entwined LivesEntwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior is a study of twins that presents genetic and behavioral information that can be uti…
Ethical Issues in Human Cloning
Ethical Issues in Human CloningBooks and articles about human cloning are rapidly filling bookstore shelves. There are a number of very good edited essay collections such as Martha C. Nus…
Ethical Issues in the New Genetics
Ethical Issues in the New GeneticsThe book's organization is tripartite: seven papers on the genetic modification and "invention" of people, five papers on genetics, determinis…
Evolution and Learning
Evolution and LearningThis is not a book designed to appeal to the casual reader. Most, if not all, of the issues that concern the book's contributors are domain-specific €“…
Evolution in Mind
Evolution in MindHenry Plotkin's Evolution in Mind is the sensible face of evolutionary psychology. While sanguine about the promise of evolutionary psychology he avo…
Evolution, Gender, and Rape
Evolution, Gender, and RapeThis collection of seventeen essays comprises a thorough and balanced response to Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer's A Natural History of Rape: Bio…
Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary Biology
Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary BiologyAn ethics based upon 'evolution' implies that we can derive and understand, perhaps even reproduce, a moral response to our genetic Code. E…
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Evolutionary Psychiatry
Evolutionary PsychiatryIn the same way that the healing sciences -- tellingly known as the healing arts until recently -- remained at a primitive level until careful…
Exploding the Gene Myth
Exploding the Gene MythIt’s hard to keep up with the rush of information and opinion coming out on genetics and human cloning.. Even without our fully realizing it, geneti…
Faces of Huntington's
Faces of Huntington'sHuntington's Disease (HD) is a relatively rare genetic disorder: maybe as many as 40,000 Americans have this severe progressive neurological disorder. Bu…
Flesh of My Flesh
Flesh of My FleshThirteen papers, 154 pages. The usual suspects. The careful arguments of philosophers and policy makers. Leon Kass argues against human cloning on the…
From Chance to Choice
From Chance to ChoiceYou would be forgiven for thinking that the most important and difficult ethical questions that have arisen as a result of advances in genetics this century…
Genes
GenesGordon Graham is a philosopher at the University of Aberdeen with a wide range of interests, including aesthetics, Christian ethics, and the philosophy o…
Genes in Conflict
Genes in ConflictSelfish genetic elements? Certain truths are rather disenchanting. We, as living organisms, never asked for such a fate; a destiny of molecular control.…
Genes on the Couch
Genes on the CouchThe profession of psychotherapy is pursued by a plethora of specialists, including psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, marriage and famil…
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Genes, Women, Equality
In Genes, Women, Equality Mary Briody Mahowald employs feminist standpoint theory to assess the ethics of various genetic interventions and the inequ…
Genetic Politics
Genetic PoliticsGenetic Politics: From Eugenics to Genome warns that eugenics is no relic of a totalitarian Nazi past but an "emergent property" of &quo…
Genetic Prospects
Genetic ProspectsThis collection of nine essays, several of which have appeared previously in the journal Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, makes a useful and distinct contribution to what is now a large industry in books dealing with the ethical issues posed by bio…
Genetic Prospects
This collection of nine essays, several of which have appeared previously in the journal Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, makes a useful an…
Genetic Secrets
Genetic SecretsIn a casual review of news articles on recent genetic advancements a number of developments stand out. USA Today reports (May 9, 2000) that a genetic databa…
Genetics of Criminal and Antisocial Behaviour
Genetics of Criminal and Antisocial BehaviourPerhaps as long as we have been aware of the link between genes and such manifestly biological traits such as eye color, people have wondered whether specif…
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Genetics of Mental Disorders
Genetics of Mental DisordersGenetics of Mental Disorders: A Guide for Students, Clinicians, Researchers, is an up-to-date and interesting review of the (relatively) new field of…
Genome: Updated Edition
Genome: Updated EditionThe attempt to map all of the genes in the human body and to read the master blueprint of the human genome is one of the great stories of our time. New maps…
Glowing Genes
Glowing GenesGlowing Genes meticulously engraves deep cutting information pertinent to the nascent "glowing genes" revolution. The author, Marc Zimm…
Human Cloning
Human CloningIn 1997, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission called for a five-year moratorium on human cloning. At the end of that period, the issue was to be revie…
Improving Nature?
Improving Nature?Published in 1996, Improving Nature? is now a little out of date in the fast moving world of genetics. Nevertheless, it is still a useful and tho…
In Our Own Image
In Our Own ImageThe word “eugenics” has come to be almost exclusively associated with Hitler’s pogrom against the Jews. Indeed, to characterize a theory a…
Is Human Nature Obsolete?
Is Human Nature Obsolete?One Is Human Nature Obsolete? collects papers given in 2001 at a conference at the University of Scranton with an introduction and one pa…
Language Origins
Language OriginsLanguage Origins collects sixteen papers which started as talks at the Fourth International Conference on the Evolution of Language (2002). The pa…
Liberal Eugenics
Liberal EugenicsIn the movie, GATTACA, Uma Thurman's character presents a single hair from the body of a potential mate for DNA sequencing. All of the hair's genetic inf…
Living with Our Genes
Living with Our GenesThe Content: Lots of useful information here. Chapters on personality, novelty seeking, anxiety, anger, addiction, sexual drive and preference, in…
Making Genes, Making Waves
Making Genes, Making WavesI wish I liked this book much more. In theory, Jon Beckwith's account of his life as a molecular biologist and as a social activist, really ought to pu…
Man As The PrayerMean Genes
Mean GenesThis book argues that because our psyches have been 'designed' by genetic evolution, in order to understand ourselves and our world 'we need to look not to…
Nature Via Nurture
Nature Via NurtureIn the ten chapters that make-up Nature via Nurture Matt Ridley sets out to show how our genes (nature) influence our behavior the more they work…
Not By Genes Alone
Not By Genes AloneIn Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd explore the issue of the interplay of nature (g…
Of Flies, Mice, and Men
Of Flies, Mice, and MenFrancois Jacob and Jacques Monod shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1965 for their work on the regulator sequences in genes. Jacob argues here that modu…
Origins of Human Nature
Origins of Human NatureThe authors of this book are already respected and well-published scholars in the field of developmental psychology. They have written extensively on hum…
Playing God?
Playing God?The present work argues that while the advances in human genetic engineering (HGE) have made the need for a fundamental, or 'thick' discussion on the ends of these technologies all the more pertinent, the public debate on these issues has become derivativ…
Playing God?
The present work argues that while the advances in human genetic engineering (HGE) have made the need for a fundamental, or 'thick' discussion on the end…
Primates and Philosophers
Primates and PhilosophersWhat is morality? An easy, silly question, on such a used, even trite term. As the Compact Oxford English Dictionary online reads, it is, first,…
Promiscuity
PromiscuityDarwin's evolutionary theory, as originally presented, taught the importance of, and the powerful results of, the processes of sexual selection. However, ac…
Psychiatric Genetics and Genomics
Psychiatric Genetics and GenomicsPsychiatric Genetics and Genomics is a carefully-selected compilation of chapters that give the clinician a thorough overview of the influence of…
Quality of Life and Human Difference
Quality of Life and Human DifferenceThere are essentially two kinds of edited collection: the one where contributors tackle diverse aspects of an issue from pretty much the same disciplinar…
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Redesigning Humans
Redesigning HumansIt is fitting that this book should appear in close chronological proximity to Francis Fukuyama’s…
Research Advances in Genetics and Genomics
Research Advances in Genetics and GenomicsThis short volume, edited by the Editor-in-Chief of the renown American Journal of Psychiatry, brings together for the first time in book form to my know…
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Responsible Genetics
Responsible GeneticsThe question of the nature and extent of moral responsibility of geneticists for the consequences of their research has not received sustained attention in discussions of the ethics of human genetics research. Certainly, few ethicists today would accept a…
Responsible Genetics
The question of the nature and extent of moral responsibility of geneticists for the consequences of their research has not received sustained attention…
Sociological Perspectives on the New Genetics
This collection of nine academic articles with an introduction written by the editors provides a very helpful introduction to the sociological discussion…
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Subordination and Defeat
Subordination and DefeatAlthough depressed persons would at first hardly enjoy viewing their unpleasant symptoms and behaviors from this angle, the contributors to this volume hypo…
The Agile Gene
The Agile GeneIn The Agile Gene Matt Ridley develops several interrelated themes. The dominant one, which gives the book its title, is that genes are not static…
The Biotech Century
The Biotech CenturyIt’s hard to keep up with the rush of information and opinion coming out on genetics and human cloning.. Even without our fully realizing it, geneti…
The Blank Slate
The Blank SlateIn The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Steven Pinker, a psychologist at M.I.T. and author of several books and articles on cogniti…
The Book of Life
The Book of LifeThe first thing that struck me when reading this book was the unconscious irony of it. For Barbara Katz Rothman communicates with passion, elegance and erud…
The Bridge to Humanity
The Bridge to HumanityHumans often deliberately behave in ways which are not conducive to their personal genetic fitness. They can be altruistic to non-kin, sending support t…
The Century of the Gene
The Century of the GeneAs the title suggests, Keller argues in this short book that the gene has had its century, and it is time for biology to focus on broader issues. This is…
The Common Thread
The Common ThreadThe Common Thread tells about the Human Genome Project from the perspective of its first director, John Sulston. The book is co-authored by Georgi…
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The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution
Recent discoveries in genetics have called into question traditional conceptions of the gene. The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution do…
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The Debated Mind
Are humans, as are other animals, born with predispositions to behave in specific ways in specific situations? Or are we a "chosen species", born tabula…
The Double-Edged Helix
The Double-Edged HelixThe Double-Edged Helix is a well-intentioned, but ultimately disappointing attempt to readdress issues of genetic discrimination, focusing on grou…
The Ethics of Human Cloning
The Ethics of Human CloningThe thought of a "baby factory" designed with the sole purpose of manufacturing millions of genetically-isomorphic Adolf Hitlers strikes most of us a…
The Evolution of Cooperation
The Evolution of CooperationRobert Axelrod's short book was not the first to contend that genuine cooperation can emerge both from seemingly non-cooperative and Neo-Darwinian in…
The Evolution of Mind
The Evolution of MindThe Evolution of Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies, edited by Steven W. Gangestad and Jeffrey A. Simpson is a remarkable collection of 43 bite-sized essays by leading contributors to the study of the evolution of mind, plus useful introductory…
The Evolution of Mind
The Evolution of Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies, edited by Steven W. Gangestad and Jeffrey A. Simpson is a remarkable collection…
The Evolving World
The Evolving WorldThe influence of Darwin's theory of evolution can hardly be underestimated. Yet, its immediate impact on the way we live seems not as profou…
The God Gene
The God GeneIn this volume, Harvard educated geneticist Dean Hamer presents the case for the genetic basis of religious belief and spirituality. The book is extremel…
The Impact of the Gene
The Impact of the GeneThe hero of this book is the nineteenth century Moravian friar, Gregor Mendel, who founded the science of genetics. Not that this was properly appreciat…
The Innate Mind
The Innate MindIn this collection of essays proponents of Evolutionary Psychology attempt to explain the place of culture in relation to what the editors' term nativism. Nativism, they claim, is not really a viewpoint, but a family of views contrasted with empiricis…
The Innate Mind
In this collection of essays proponents of Evolutionary Psychology attempt to explain the place of culture in relation to what the editors' term nati…
The Limits and Lies of Human Genetic Research
The Limits and Lies of Human Genetic ResearchHave you ever thought about why some authors tend to write bad books and bad reviews? Maybe there something in their genes that makes these authors unable…
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The Maladapted Mind
The Maladapted MindThe Maladapted Mind: Classic Readings in Evolutionary Psychopathology, edited by Simon Baron Cohen, is an excellent compilation of articles explor…
The Meme Machine
The Meme MachineIn his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene (New York, 1976: Oxford Universit…
The New Genetic Medicine
The New Genetic MedicineThis book is a collation of previously published papers, drawing together a number of otherwise diverse discussions into a coherent whole. It is an acce…
The Origin and Evolution of Cultures
The Origin and Evolution of CulturesDuring the seventies, evolutionary theorists started arguing that human behavior is amendable to the same Darwinian treatment as all (other) biological f…
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The Perfect Baby
The Perfect BabyIt?s amazing that practically every day there is some item in the news concerning the new genetic technology. I have just finished teaching a new course…
The Shattered Self
The Shattered SelfSome 31 years ago, Alvin Toffler published a very influential nook entitled…
The Terrible Gift
The Terrible GiftRick Carlson and Gary Stimeling have written a book that purports to analyze the challenges the new frontiers of genetic medicine set on the modern healt…
The Theory of Options
The Theory of OptionsGould’s Theory of Options is put forward to bridge explanations of human behavior to those of human evolution. The major claim is that the human…
The Top 10 Myths About Evolution
The Top 10 Myths About EvolutionThe Top 10 Myths about Evolution is an easy book to review because it is concise, readable, and intelligently designed [pun intended]. It is an…
The Triumph of Sociobiology
The Triumph of SociobiologySociobiology is a term that, even a quarter century after it was thrust into the academic domain, often elicits unexpected and weakly articulated hostili…
Twins
TwinsWho among us has not embarrassed him or herself by gawking at the appearance of identical or monozygotic (MZ) human twins? This visual allure is an…
Understanding Cloning
Understanding CloningGiven the recent hubbub over Clonaid's likely bogus claims to have successfully cloned two human infants, Understanding Cloning, a volume in Sc…
Understanding the Genome
Understanding the GenomeUnderstanding the Genome, a volume in Scientific American's "Science Made Accessible" series, is meant to shed light on the Human…
Unnatural Selection
Unnatural SelectionI read this book on a coast-to-coast plane ride on the day following the joint announc…
Unto Others
Unto OthersIn 1998, Elliot Sober, a philosopher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and David Sloan Wilson, a biologist at Binghamton University, New York, publi…
Up From Dragons
Up From DragonsChampioning the ascent of reptiles as much as the descent of man, this thoughtful volume on the evolution of intelligence by Skoyles and Sagan is a welco…
War Against the Weak
War Against the WeakEdwin Miller's War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race represents a challenge to all those who would plead…
What Genes Can't Do
What Genes Can't DoThis is, by turns, an important and a frustrating book. It is important because if its arguments are correct, we need to rethink the notion of the gene,…
What It Means to Be 98 Percent Chimpanzee
What It Means to Be 98 Percent ChimpanzeeThe popular press has long proclaimed that we share 98.5 per cent of our genetic material with chimps, which are said to be our closest relatives. Just t…
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Wondergenes
WondergenesMehlman's book begins with a thrilling anecdote and ends with a chilling proposal. He begins by having us imagine a mountain rescue team of genetically e…
Wrestling with Behavioral Genetics
Wrestling with Behavioral GeneticsThis volume of edited essays aims to provide tools, information, and resources to help guide a public dialogue concerning behavioral genetics. Supported…
Your Genetic Destiny
Your Genetic DestinyIn Your Genetic Destiny, Aubrey Milunsky sets out some of the most recent information about genetic medicine. The fundamental premise of the book…