Rosoff Philip M, Rosenberg Alex
Department of Pediatrics (Hematology-Oncology), Duke University Medical Center and Graduate Program in Philosophy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci. 2006 Mar;37(1):122-35. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2005.12.005. Epub 2006 Jan 24.
Genetic determinism labels the morally problematical claim that some socially significant traits, traits we care about, such as sexual orientation, gender roles, violence, alcoholism, mental illness, intelligence, are largely the results of the operation of genes and not much alterable by environment, learning or other human intervention. Genetic determinism does not require that genes literally fix these socially significant traits, but rather that they constrain them within narrow channels beyond human intervention. In this essay we analyze genetic determinism in light of what is now known about the inborn error of metabolism phenylketonuria (PKU), which has for so long been the poster child 'simple' argument in favor of some form of genetic determinism. We demonstrate that this case proves the exact opposite of what it has been proposed to support and provides a strong refutation of genetic determinism in all its guises.
基因决定论指的是一种在道德层面存在问题的观点，即某些具有社会意义的特征，也就是我们所关注的特征，如性取向、性别角色、暴力倾向、酗酒、精神疾病、智力等，在很大程度上是基因作用的结果，受环境、学习或其他人类干预的影响不大。基因决定论并不要求基因直接决定这些具有社会意义的特征，而是认为基因将它们限制在人类干预无法改变的狭窄范围内。在本文中，我们根据目前已知的代谢性先天性疾病苯丙酮尿症（PKU）来分析基因决定论，长期以来，苯丙酮尿症一直是支持某种形式基因决定论的“典型”案例。我们证明，这个案例所证明的与它原本被认为能支持的观点恰恰相反，并有力地驳斥了各种形式的基因决定论。
