Concerns concerning biosciences, human nature, and governing science

Lecture was presented April 13, 2012 at the seminar, Governing Science: Technological Progress, Ethical Norms, and Democracy, held at Princeton University, Department of Politics, April 13-14, 2012.The biological sciences have developed dramatically in the last half century, raising concerns about their implications for human nature and behavior. While such research can and ought shape policy, policy equally should critique such research. Science, as much as any other human institution, needs its humanist critics--ethicists, philosophers, theologians, policymakers. Analysis of a half-dozen claims coming from biological sciences, to demonstrate that half-truths, if taken for the whole, can be both misleading and dangerous. Fortunately scientists are also good at being their own critics. 1. Selfish genes. 2. Genetic destiny. 3. Pleistocene appetites. 4. Monkey's mind. 5. Neuroscience: Bottom up? Top down? 6. Enlightening/escalating self-interest. 7. Ideology: Reasoned governing behavior