Beyond Versus ─ The Struggle to Understand the Interaction of Nature and Nurture

If everyone now agrees that human traits arise not from nature or nurture but fromthe interaction of nature and nurture, why does the "nature versus nurture" debatepersist? In Beyond Versus, James Tabery argues that the persistence stems from acentury-long struggle to understand the interaction of nature and nurture -- a struggle to definewhat the interaction of nature and nurture is, how it should be investigated, and what counts asevidence for it.

Tabery examines past episodes in the nature versus nurturedebates, offers a contemporary philosophical perspective on them, and considers the future ofresearch on the interaction of nature and nurture. From the eugenics controversy of the 1930s andthe race and IQ controversy of the 1970s to the twenty-first-century debate over the causes ofdepression, Tabery argues, the polarization in these discussions can be attributed to what he callsan "explanatory divide" -- a disagreement over how explanation works in science, which inturn has created two very different concepts of interaction. Drawing on recent developments in thephilosophy of science, Tabery offers a way to bridge this explanatory divide and these differentconcepts integratively. Looking to the future, Tabery evaluates the ethical issues that surroundgenetic testing for genes implicated in interactions of nature and nurture, pointing to what thefuture does (and does not) hold for a science that continues to make headlines and raisecontroversy.

James Tabery is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and member of the Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Utah.