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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Ideological Subversion of Biology

mercredi 22 novembre 2023 à 11:48

The Ideological Subversion of Biology.

It contains this quotation from Ernst Mayr:

Equality [of rights] in spite of evident non-identity is a somewhat sophisticated concept and requires a moral stature of which many individuals seem to be incapable. They rather deny human variability and equate equality with identity. Or they claim that the human species is exceptional in the organic world in that only morphological characters are controlled by genes and all other traits of the mind or character are due to “conditioning” or other non-genetic factors. … An ideology based on such obviously wrong premises can only lead to disaster. Its championship of human equality is based on a claim of identity. As soon as it is proved that the latter does not exist, the support of equality [of rights] is likewise lost. (Mayr 1963)

I agree with Mayr, as do the authors of the paper. I advocate equal rights for all humans, though we should and do impose practical tests of ability and knowledge for specific activities such as driving a motor vehicle and practicing medicine. As for facts, about individual humans or about biology and medicine, we can ascertain them by observation and by scientific inquiry, and we should respect the facts we find.