August 11, 2000

The History of Debates Over Sociobiology

To the Editor:

The July 7 article "Why the 25-Year-Old Battle Over Sociobiology Is More Than Just 'an Academic Sideshow'" portrays Ullica Segerstråle's book Defenders of the Truth as defending the view that the debate has scientific issues at its core, as opposed to characterizing the debate as ideological. However, this way of posing the issue is misleading. Of course, one portrayal of the debate is objective scientists -- Edward O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, et al. -- who