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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Despite publicly disavowing genetic determinism, biologists often implicitly adhere to a weaker form of genetic primacy, holding that traits are primarily (even if not wholly) genetic.

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    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.The methodological practice of holding environmental factors constant while varying genes reflects experimental design constraints, not ontological commitment to genetic primacy.
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    • 2.Kenneth Waters' 'actual difference making' account shows geneticists privilege genes because they explain actual population variation, not because genes are causally superior in principle.
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    • 3.A pragmatic, context-sensitive criterion for causal relevance is not equivalent to the metaphysical claim that genes are primary causes of traits.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Developmental systems theorists like Susan Oyama have shown that gene-environment asymmetries in biological practice dissolve under a fully symmetric developmental systems ontology.
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    • 2.If no principled asymmetry survives Oyama's critique, Kaplan's charge of implicit genetic primacy identifies a correctable heuristic bias rather than a persistent theoretical commitment among biologists.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Biologists disavow the strong 'intervention is useless' form of genetic determinism.
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    • 2.Yet Kaplan finds biologists frequently treat genes as causally primary among the factors influencing traits.
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    • 3.No adequate basis for this primacy of genes over non-genetic causes has been established.
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