Biology and Behavior: Genetics

"On November 18-19, 1966, Russell Sage Foundation and The Rockefeller University, in collaboration with the Social Science Research Council, sponsored a conference on genetics and behavior in Caspary Auditorium on the Rockefeller campus in New York City. The organization of the meeting was guided by the premise that recent advances in genetics portend serious social, ethical, and legal consequences. It is important that both biological and social scientists study these consequences. Social scientists, in particular, are equipped by training and are implicitly committed to make substantial contributions in this area. However, they often lack the knowledge of behavior genetics necessary for sophisticated analysis of the social consequences of new knowledge resulting from research on genetics. The specialist in genetics, on the other hand, often lacks the interest or skill necessary for examination of the broad implications of this research. The purpose of the conference was to enable participants drawn from both groups of scientists to benefit from exposure to the work of representatives of the other. The present volume contains a series of fourteen papers delivered at the two-day conference. The papers have been slightly modified to meet the more formal requirements of publication. The topics include discussions of the relationship between genetics and intelligence; behavior genetics research in infrahuman species and its relevance for understanding human social behavior; the role of social competition in natural selection, with particular attention to population control; and biogenetic theories of social structure and process, such as stratification, socialization, deviance, and social change. The major address of the meeting was delivered on the evening of November 18 by Professor Theodosius Dobzhansky of The Rockefeller University. The complete text of his paper, "Genetics and the Social Sciences," is included in this volume."