Is it Possible to Overturn Negative Views of Heredity? — Challenges from Behavioral Genetics and Evolutionary Pedagogy will be held on Thursday, January 16, 2025.
Event Date
Event Venue
Since humans are also biological organisms, the fact that genetic influence can be found in all traits, whether physical or mental, is as natural a fact as the Earth being round. Nevertheless, particularly regarding human psychological and behavioral traits, acknowledging this has long been treated as a taboo in modern social sciences and political thought, under the premise that it leads to the justification of discrimination, eugenics, or eugenic ideology. It is a fundamental principle of human ethics that discrimination must not be justified.
However, the "negative view of heredity" that regards the scientific pursuit of genetics itself as evil for that reason, or the developmental biological view of life that emphasizes epigenetics to relativize genetic factors within interactions with the environment, also seems to be an intellectual deception.
Based on behavioral genetics research using the twin method, which provides clues to genetic influences on behavior, and recent research on GWAS and polygenic scores, and further considering the active inference of the brain and the evolutionary functions of education, we can understand that the probabilistic behavior of genetic factors' influence on psychological and behavioral traits plays an important role in the life history of humans as social beings and the dynamism of social formation. This allows us to hope for neutralizing the ideology of this "negative view of heredity" and moving in a scientifically sound direction. Nonetheless, there is no denying the danger that throwing such findings into the "naive view of heredity"—such as "heredity = transmission of traits between parents and children (similarity)" or "heredity = fatalistic determinism"—which remains deeply rooted in people's minds, may promote a "new eugenics."
In this situation, I would like to consider with all of you how scientists and science media should behave.
【Date and Time】
Thursday, January 16, 2025, 16:30–18:00
【Target Audience】
Open to anyone (General public, students, faculty, and staff)
【Fee】
Free
【Venue】
Hiyoshi Campus, Raiosha, 2nd Floor Conference Room
【Organizer】
Research and Education Center for Natural Sciences
【Contact】
Secretariat, Research and Education Center for Natural Sciences, Keio University (Inside Raiosha, Hiyoshi Campus)
4-1-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 223-8521
Office[at]sci.keo.ac.jp
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