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Richard Lewontin Quotes

b. 1929 United States

Richard Charles "Dick" Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and social commentator. He pioneered the application of techniques from molecular biology, such as gel electrophoresis, to questions of genetic variation and evolution, and is considered a leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory.

United States
Academics
Biologists
Critics
Marxists

Also known as: R. C. Lewontin, Richard C. Lewontin

Random Richard Lewontin quote

3 quotes

Parts and wholes evolve in consequence of their relationship, and the relationship itself evolves.

The Dialectical Biologist (1985)

The vulgarization of Darwinism that sees the "struggle for existence" as nothing but the competition for some environmental resource in short supply ignores the large body of evidence about the actual complexity of the relationship between organisms and their resources.

Biology is not physics, because organisms are such complex physical objects, and sociology is not biology because human societies are made by self-conscious organisms. By pretending to a kind of knowledge that it cannot achieve, social science can only engender the scorn of natural scientists and the cynicism of the humanists.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Richard Lewontin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.