Making Sense of Heritability [Hardcover]

A fresh and compelling intervention in the very contentious debate over heritability.Sesardic defends the view that it is both possible and useful to measure the separate contributions of heredity and environment to the explanation of human psychological differences. He critically examines the view--very widely accepted by scientists, social scientists and philosophers of science--that heritability estimates have no causal implications and are without interest. In a series of clearly written chapters he introduces the reader to the problems and subjects the arguments to close philosophical scrutiny. His book is a fresh, original and compelling intervention in a very contentious debate.Sesardic defends the view that it is both possible and useful to measure the separate contributions of heredity and environment to the explanation of human psychological differences. He critically examines the view--very widely accepted by scientists, social scientists and philosophers of science--that heritability estimates have no causal implications and are without interest. In a series of clearly written chapters he introduces the reader to the problems and subjects the arguments to close philosophical scrutiny. His book is a fresh, original and compelling intervention in a very contentious debate.Neven Sesardic defends the view that it is both possible and useful to measure the separate contributions of heredity and environment to the explanation of human psychological differences. He critically examines the view--very widely accepted by scientists, social scientists and philosophers of science--that heritability estimates have no causal implications and are devoid of any interest and subjects the arguments to close philosophical scrutiny. His conclusion is that anti-heritability arguments are based on conceptual confusions and misunderstandings of behavioral genetics.Introduction; 1. The nature-nurture debate: a premature burial?; 2. A tangle of interactions: separating genetic al3"