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Nature Via Nurture : Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human
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Binding: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: May 01, 2003
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Editorial Review:
In the follow-up to his bestseller, Genome, Matt Ridley takes on a centuries-old question: is it nature or nurture that makes us who we are? Ridley asserts that the question itself is a "false dichotomy." Using copious examples from human and animal behavior, he presents the notion that our environment affects the way our genes express themselves.
Ridley writes that the switches controlling our 30,000 or so genes not only form the structures of our brains but do so in such a way as to cue off the outside environment in a tidy feedback loop of body and behavior. In fact, it seems clear that we have genetic "thermostats" that are turned up and down by environmental factors. He challenges both scientific and folk concepts, from assumptions of what's malleable in a person to sociobiological theories based solely on the "selfish gene."
Ridley's proof is in the pudding for such touchy subjects as monogamy, aggression, and parenting, which we now understand have some genetic controls. Nevertheless, "the more we understand both our genes and our instincts, the less inevitable they seem." A consummate popularizer of science, Ridley once again provides a perfect mix of history, genetics, and sociology for readers hungry to understand the implications of the human genome sequence. --Therese Littleton
Following his highly praised and bestselling book Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Matt Ridley has written a brilliant and profound book about the roots of human behavior. Nature via Nurture explores the complex and endlessly intriguing question of what makes us who we are.
In February 2001 it was announced that the human genome contains not 100,000 genes, as originally postulated, but only 30,000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply not enough human genes to account for all the different ways people behave: we must be made by nurture, not nature. Yet again biology was to be stretched on the Procrustean bed of the nature-nurture debate. Matt Ridley argues that the emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on genes, too, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.
Published fifty years after the discovery of the double helix of DNA, Nature via Nurture chronicles a revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. Nature via Nurture is an enthralling,up-to-the-minute account of how genes build brains to absorb experience.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Clarifying ideas!!!
If you are looking for a pleasant reading with clear ideas about what is more important between biological and social influences, this is the right book. I also recommend this book for non-evolutionary researchers!!!
Rating: - An interesting, light read
In "The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture" (previously published as "Nature via Nurture") Matt Ridley explores how the modern understanding of the genome recasts the boundaries of the age-old nature versus nurture debate. Nature versus nurture is a long, intense and often highly charged, intellectual debate but Ridley shows it to be a false dichotomy. The two sides are not mutually exclusive. Genes (on the nature side of the equation) enable the acquisition of environmental influences (nurture) ... Read More
Rating:  - Deception
I am disapointed that this book was retitled from the original book - Nuture Via Nature. We bought both books only to discover they are the same book. Amazon should have made this change in title clear. The book is excellent by the way and should be a must read for anyone interested about this topic.
Rating: - Sheds light on various nature versus nurture arguments
Science writer Matt Ridley is a must read for anyone wanting to understand new discoveries about genes, and how they influence us throughout our lives. "The Agile Gene" is not as illuminating and captivating as the other Matt Ridley books (his best works are "The Origins of Human Virtue" and "The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature"). You'll get a broader and deeper understanding of nature vs. nuture from the other books if you are interested in understanding how genes effect human relations ... Read More
Rating: - Nature through Nurture through Nature in an Endless Series of Adaptations
Note: This book was originally published as "Nature via Nurture."
Ridley is a journalist with an impeccable and broad understanding of "sociobiology." He is capable of distilling a broad array of sociobiological phenomena so that the layman can grasp what science is doing behind those polysyllabic and arcane words. This is yet another of his home runs.
Another Ridley home run! He's batting a thousand. Not bad for a popularizer of science.
Don't let the book's title fool ... Read More
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