Similarly, “the idea that nature and nurture interact to shape some part of the mind might turn out to be wrong” but “the nature-nurture debate, as it has been played out for millennia, really is over, or ought to be.” Heritability is always partial, implying that other factors play a role, and it is consistent with many causes, including the wiring of the brain, tuning of the immune system, and release of prenatal hormones. In fact the two statements are consistent: to show that a trait is heritable is not to explain its cause. tells us early on, for instance, that there is good evidence that “sexual orientation” is heritable but later on that “no one knows why some boys become gay.” Orr criticizes my avoidance of simplistic arguments as “talking out of both sides of his mouth” or invoking “exotic” evolutionary processes. Orr is more reasoned than his predecessors, but still makes many misleading claims. Allen Orr’s review of The Blank Slate falls into a familiar genre: the all-out attack on books that connect biology to human affairs.
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