Davies K G
IACR-Rothamsted, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK AL5 2JQ.
Trends Biotechnol. 2001 Oct;19(10):424-7. doi: 10.1016/S0167-7799(01)01767-X.
The debate concerning genetically modified organisms goes on unabated and reflects some genuine concerns. I suggest that a significantly large number of educated people believe that moving genes around between species is intuitively wrong and that this is based on an essentialist view of the world. This essentialist view has a long history that dates back to Plato and Aristotle and was eventually overthrown by the population thinking of Charles Darwin. The essentialist, who is antipathetic to population thinking, will naturally find the transfer of a gene from one organism to another distasteful, and this, I argue, is the result of Platonic thinking, which still remains and casts its spell over us today.
关于转基因生物的争论仍在激烈进行，这反映了一些切实存在的担忧。我认为，相当多受过教育的人认为在物种间转移基因从直觉上说是错误的，而这是基于一种本质主义的世界观。这种本质主义观点有着悠久的历史，可以追溯到柏拉图和亚里士多德，最终被查尔斯·达尔文的群体思想所推翻。本质主义者反感群体思想，自然会觉得将一个基因从一种生物转移到另一种生物令人不快，而我认为，这是柏拉图式思维的结果，这种思维仍然存在并在今天对我们施加着影响。
