Race, materialism and genes (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, December 06, 2014, 20:50 (3426 days ago)

An excellent essay as a book review:-http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/09/a_troubling_book_nicholas_wades_genetic_theory_of_race_and_history.html-"Anyway, “adaptations” are fairly well understood and “racial” differences remain obvious though unexplained.-
"However, the important point is that Wade joins the long parade of materialist, physicalist philosophers who wish to reduce man to mere matter, the better to understand him -- or so they think. Though this reductionist view dates back to the ancients, it was revisited when Darwin wrote that human behavior was a product of “instincts” since he thought humans are only animals.-"But this theory was discredited by the end of the 19th century just as by the end of the 20th century the “genes are destiny” theory fell into disrepute. The latter became embarrassingly clear when Richard Dawkins concocted his frothy notion of “selfish genes”. Strange that materialists deny volition to humans while bestowing it on genes which are, after all, only proteins."--"Wade admits as much when he writes that free will can veto any genetic predilection. But this admission unravels Wade's argument, for as David Berlinski writes, “there can be no slippage” in a materialist, Darwinian system where everything must contribute to the organism's survival -- which free will decidedly does not do." -
"Indeed, under materialism the problem of self-refutation becomes a stumbling block. To wit: if Wade's own “thinking” results from the mere excretion of chemicals, why would it be reliable? And why would a materialistic, accidental process like Darwinian evolution produce a reliable brain?
 -"Is the “answer” that all ideas are explainable by physical processes, except when they are not? Thus, Wade exempts himself from his own genetic proclivities."-
Lots of fodder here from discussion. Again Darwin and eugenics are related, or conflated?