As we think about how science relates to society, we’re going to encounter arguments that might be roughly grouped together under the label ‘biological determinism.’ We’ll be exploring this concept – including a series of critiques of the concept – in detail in this and the coming weeks. Let’s get started by thinking carefully about the following questions
1. What might it mean to say that an individual is determined by their biology? Or that someone is essentially who and how they are due to biological characteristics?
2. What role does biology play in relation to society? What role does society play in relation to biology? In other words, does biology influence society? Does society influence biology? How, exactly?
3.Can we think of examples where biology is used to explain individual behaviors and social relations? That is, can we think of examples where society is explained by reference to biology? Do we find such examples persuasive? Yes? No? Maybe? it depends?
4. Can we think of critiques of using a biological determinist approach to understanding people and society?
A related series of questions that we will begin considering this week concern the ‘big picture’ concept of classification/categorization – how individuals and groups of individuals come to be grouped into certain ‘boxes’ (for better or for worse) in terms of gender, sex, sexuality, race, ethnicity, etc. Processes of categorization/classification lead us to ask a number of questions.
What might it mean to suggest that gender is socially constructed? How does thinking of gender in terms of social construction compare with the logic of biological determinism that we’ve begun to discuss?
What about race? What might it mean to suggest that race is socially constructed?
In scientific, medical, and other (e.g. legal) contexts, folks are often categorized. What do these classification or categorization schema do?
In particular, what scientific purpose(s) do they serve? Do forms of classification based on gender or race serve beneficial ends? Harmful ends? Both? Neither? It depends?
How might attending to multiple intersecting variables (i.e. race/gender/class) inform particular STEM research projects and/or practical applications/interventions?
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