Genetic Determinism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the theory of Genetic Determinism. In the middle of the last century two men - Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, and Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, established the central theories of modern biology and changed the world forever. Darwin’s On the Origin of Species has been described as the book of the Millennium, “the only best-seller to change man’s conception of himself”. Through the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in the early decades of our century, evolutionary theory was transformed by the emergence of genetics as a science. Crick and Watson found DNA at Cambridge and announced that they had discovered the secret of life in a local pub, and the rest has been the most compulsive element in the intellectual history of the twentieth century. It seems as if almost every week we read about another gene which claims to determine our fate - whether it governs our intelligence, personality or sexual orientation. Many rail against what they see as “genetic determinism” - the idea that genes are the destiny we can do nothing about. Others willingly blame their anti-social behaviour on “criminal genes” - thus absolving themselves of any responsibility. Genetics may be all about inheritance but is inheritance all about the genes?

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Steve Jones 22 episodes
  Professor of Genetics, University College, London
• Matt Ridley No other episodes
  science journalist, chairman of the International Centre for Life

Related episodes

• Genetics
  
  13 Dec, 2001 570 Biology
• Genetic Engineering
  
  14 Jan, 1999 570 Biology
• Evolutionary Psychology
  
  2 Nov, 2000 150 Psychology
• Evolution
  
  15 Apr, 1999 570 Biology
• Social Darwinism
  
  20 Feb, 2014 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Darwin: On the Origins of Charles Darwin
  
  5 Jan, 2009 570 Biology
• Genetic Mutation
  
  6 Dec, 2007 570 Biology
• Darwin: On the Origin of Species
  
  7 Jan, 2009 570 Biology
• Lamarck and Natural Selection
  
  26 Dec, 2003 570 Biology
• Free Will
  
  10 Mar, 2011 100 Philosophy

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: p005461w

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005461w

Auto-category: 576.5 (Genetics and evolution)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. In the middle of the last century, two men, Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, and Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, established the central theories of modern biology and changed the way the world thinks.