An open letter on E.O. Wilson's legacy
&quot; Genes and racism<p>S1R- Steven Rose notes in his recent letter
(Nature 22 January, p.335) that a National
Front journal New Nation has claimed to find
support for racism in my writings on
sociobiology, as well as in those of Dawkins
and Maynard Smith. Rose calls on the latter
two authors to dissociate themselves from such
misuse, although curiously he does not extend
the same invitation to me. To keep the record
straight, I am happy to point out that no
justification for racism is to be found in the
truly scientific study of the biological basis of
social behaviour. As I stated in On Human
Nature, &quot;I will go further and suggest that
hope and pride and not despair are the
ultimate legacy of genetic diversity, because we
are a single species, not two or more, one great
breeding system through which genes flow and
mix in each generation. Because of that flux,
mankind viewed over many generations shares
a single human nature within which relatively
minor hereditary influences recycle through
ever changing patterns, between the sexes and
across families and entire populations&quot; .
lf there is a possible hereditary tendency to
acquire xenophobia and nationalist feelings, it
is a non sequitur to interpret such a hypothesis
as an argument in favour of racist ideology. It
is more reasonable to assume that a knowledge
of such a hereditary basis can lead to the
circumvention of destructive behaviour such
as racism, just as a knowledge of the
hereditary basis of haemoglobin chemistry and
insulin production can lead to the amelioration
of their pathological variants.
l now call on Professor Rose to consider
these and similar arguments raised in my
writings. It is my hope that he will not confine
himself, as he has in the past, to arguments
that link sociobiology to racism and thus to
continue to abet the very misuse which he
piously claims to deplore.<p>EDWARD0. WILSON
Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;289627b0.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;289627b0.pdf</a>