Richard
C. Lewontin is an evolutionary geneticist, philosopher
of science, and social critic. He is best known among biologists
for his role in the development of molecular population genetics
in the 1960s and 1970s, especially the use of electrophoresis
to study the evolutionary implications of enzyme polymorphisms.
The two 1966 papers that he co-authored with J.L. Hubby on
this topic are considered to be classics in the field. His
1972 article on "The Apportionment of Human Diversity,"
in which he argues that genetic variation is greater within
"races" than between them, is considered a landmark
paper in human genetics and is still frequently cited. Further,
his classic 1974 work, The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary
Change, is still required reading both aspiring population
geneticists and philosophers of evolutionary biology.
Lewontin received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1951 and
his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1954, where he was a
student of Theodosius Dobzhansky. After professorships at
North Carolina State University, University of Rochester and
University of Chicago (where he served as Chairman of the
Program in Evolutionary Biology from 1968-1973), Lewontin
moved to Harvard University in 1973, where he has been ever
since. He is currently Alexander Agassiz Research Professor
there.
Lewontin's reputation, however, is not based simply on his
many scientific and academic accomplishments. Over the past
30 years, he has turned his critical gaze toward the ways
that biology is done and the place of science in society.
In numerous books and articles, including Biology as Ideology,
Not in Our Genes, and The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism,
and Environment, he has challenged molecular biologists
and geneticists to think about the living world more holistically
than is currently fashionable. Lewontin is well-known for
his scathing critiques of the rhetoric used by scientists
to gain public support and funding for the Human Genome Project.
Additionally, he has been concerned for many years with questions
about the genetic and non-genetic variables that influence
behavioral traits like intelligence and temperament.
Selected Bibliography:
- R.C. Lewontin, "The effects of population density
and composition on viability in Drosophila melanogaster,"
Evolution 9 (1955): 27-41.
- R.C. Lewontin, "A general method for investigating
the equilibrium of gene frequency in a population,"
Genetics 43 (1958): 419-434.
- R.C. Lewontin and C.C. Cockerham, "The goodness-of-fit
test for detecting natural selection in random mating populations,"
Evolution 13 (1959): 561-564.
- R.C. Lewontin and L.C. Dunn, "The evolutionary dynamics
of a polymorphism in the house mouse," Genetics
45 (1960): 705-722.
- R.C. Lewontin and K.I. Kojima, "The evolutionary
dynamics of complex polymorphisms," Evolution 14 (1960):
458-472.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Models, mathematics, and metaphors,"
Synthese 15 (1963): 222-244.
- R.C. Lewontin, "The interactions of selection and
linkage. I. General considerations; heterotic models,"
Genetics 49 (1964): 49-67.
- R.C. Lewontin, "The new gospel of genetics? Essay
review of F. Stahl, The Mechanisms of Inheritance,"
Science 145 (1964): 525.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Selection in and of populations,"
in J.A. Moore (ed.), Ideas in Modern Biology (New
York: Natural History Press, 1965), pp. 292-311.
- R. C. Lewontin and J. L. Hubby, "A Molecular Approach
to the Study of Genic Heterozygosity in Natural Populations.
II. Amount of Variation and Degree of Heterozygosity in
Natural Populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura," Genetics
54 (1966): 595-609.
- J. L. Hubby and R. C. Lewontin, "A Molecular Approach
to the Study of Genic Heterozygosity in Natural Populations.
I. The Number of Alleles at Different Loci in Drosophila
pseudoobscura," Genetics 54 (1966): 546-595.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Population Genetics," Annual
Review of Genetics 1 (1967): 37-70.
- R.C. Lewontin, "The effects of differential viability
on the population dynamics of t alleles in the house mouse,"
Evolution 22 (1968): 262-273.
- R.C. Lewontin, "The bases of conflict in biological
explanation," Journal of the History of Biology
2 (1969): 34-45.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Race and Intelligence," Bulletin
of Atomic Scientists 26 (March 1970): 2-8.
- R.C. Lewontin and I. Franklin, "Is the gene the unit
of selection?," Genetics 65 (1970): 707-734.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Units of Selection," Annual
Review of Ecology and Systematics 1 (1970): 1-18.
- R.C. Lewontin, "The apportionment of human diversity,"
Evolutionary Biology 6 (1972): 381-398.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Testing the theory of natural selection,"
Nature 236 (1972): 181-182.
- R.C. Lewontin and G.L. Stebbins, "Comparative evolution
at the levels of molecules, organisms, and populations,"
Proc. VI Berkeley Symp. on Math, Stats., and Probability
5 (1972): 23-42.
- R.C. Lewontin, The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1974).
- R.C. Lewontin, "The analysis of variance and the
analysis of causes," American Journal of Human Genetics
26 (1974): 400-411.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Population genetics," Annual
Reveiw of Genetics 7 (1974): 1-17.
- R.C. Lewontin, "The problem of genetic diversity,"
Harvey Lecture Series 70 (1975): 1-20.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Genetic aspects of intelligence,"
Annual Review of Genetics 9 (1976): 382-405.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Race and Intelligence," in N.J.
Block and G. Dworkin (eds.), The IQ Controversy (New
York: Pantheon Books, 1976), pp. 107-112.
- R.C. Lewontin, "The Fallacy of Biological Determinism,"
The Sciences 16 (1976): 6-10.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Adaptation," Scientific American
293 (1978): 212-228.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Sociobiology as an adaptationist
paradigm," Behavioral Science 24 (1979): 5-14.
- R.C. Lewontin, J. Coyne and W. Eanes, "The genetics
of electrophoretic variation," Genetics 92 (1979):
353-361.
- R.C. Lewontin and S.J. Gould, "The Spandrels of San
Marcos and the Panglossian Paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist
program," Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 205 (1979):
581-598.
- R.C. Lewontin, et. al., "Gene flow and the geographical
distribution of a molecular polymorphism in Drosophila pseudoobscura,"
Genetics 198 (1981): 157-178.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Theoretical population genetics in
the evolutionary synthesis," in E. Mayr and W. Provine
(eds.), The Evolutionary Synthesis (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. ??-??.
- R.C. Lewontin, et. al., Dobzhansky's Genetics of Natural
Populations I-XLIII (New York: Columbia University Press,
(1981).
- R.C. Lewontin and E. Sober, "Artifact, cause and
genic selection," Philosophy of Science 49 (1982):
157-180.
- R.C. Lewontin, Human Diversity (Redding, CT: Scientific
American and W.H. Freeman, 1982 [1995]).
- R.C. Lewontin, "Biological determinism," Tanner
Lectures on Human Values 4 (1983): 147-183.
- R.C. Lewontin, S. Rose, and L. Kamin, Not in Our Genes:
Biology, Ideology and Human Nature (New York: Pantheon,
1984).
- R.C. Lewontin, "Population Genetics," Annual
Review of Genetics 19 (1985): 81-102.
- R. Levins and R.C. Lewontin, The Dialectical Biologist
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985).
- J.P. Berlan and R.C. Lewontin, "The political economy
of hybrid corn," Monthly Review 38 (1986): 35-47.
- M. Schiff and R.C. Lewontin, Education and Class
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).
- J.P. Berlan and R.C. Lewontin, "Breeder's rights
and the patenting of life forms," Nature 322 (1986):
785-788.
- R.C. Lewontin, Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of
DNA (New York: Harper Collins, 1991).
- R.C. Lewontin, "Perspectives: 25 years ago in genetics:
Electrophoresis in the development of evolutionary genetics:
milestone or millstone?," Genetics 128 (1991):
657-662.
- R.C. Lewontin and D.L. Hartl, "Population genetic
problems in forensic DNA typing," Science 254
(1991): 1745-1750.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Facts and the factitiousin natural
sciences," in J. Chandler, et. al. (eds.), Questions
of Evidence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994),
pp. 478-491; and rejoinder 504-509.
- R.C. Lewontin, "Evolution as Engineering," in
J. Collado, et. al. (eds.), Integrative Approaches to
Molecular Biology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996).
- R.C. Lewontin, "Population Genetic Issues in the
forensic use of DNA," in D. Faigman, et. al. (eds.),
West Companion to Scientific Evidence (St. Paul:
West Publishing Co., 1996), pp. 673-696.
- R.C. Lewontin, "What do population geneticists know
and how do they know it?," in R. Creath and J. Maienschen
(eds.), Biology and Epistemology (Cambridge and New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 191-214.
- R.C. Lewontin, It Ain't Necessarily So: The Dream of
the Human Genome and Other Illusions (New York: New
York Review of Books, 2000).
- R.C. Lewontin, The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and
Environment (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2000).
For a complete list of Lewontin's
publications, see two essay collections recently published
in his honor:
- R.S. Singh and C.S. Crimbas, Evolutionary Genetics:
From Molecules to Morphology (Cambridge and New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2000). [The focus of this collection
is primarily scientific.]
- R.S. Singh, C.S. Crimbas, D.B. Paul and J. Beatty, Thinking
About Evolution: Historical, Philosophical, and Political
Perspectives (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2001).
This page was written by Jay Aronson on August 28, 2001 |