Narratives of Genetic Selfhood
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11306352 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Angela N H Creager (0000-0002-7763-6432, Thomas M. Siebel Professor in the History of Science Princeton University Department of History, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 468-486 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0170-6233 • E-ISSN: 1522-2365 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/bewi.202200022 |
| PMID | 36086835 |
| OpenAlex | W4295129444 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 62 |
This essay considers the mid‐twentieth century adoption of genetic explanations for three biological phenomena: nutritional adaptation, antibiotic resistance, and antibody production. This occurred at the same time as the hardening of the neo‐Darwinian Synthesis in evolutionary theory. I argue that these concurrent changes reflect an ascendant narrative of genetic selfhood, which prioritized random hereditary variation and selection through competition, and marginalized physiological or environmental adaptation. This narrative was further reinforced by the Central Dogma of molecular biology and fit well with liberal political thought, with its focus on the autonomous individual. However, bringing biological findings into line with this narrative required modifying the notion of the gene to account for various kinds of non‐Mendelian inheritance. Hans‐Jörg Rheinberger's reflections on narrative and experiment are valuable in thinking about the friction between the postwar ideal of genetic selfhood and actual observations of how organisms adapt in response to the environment
Adaptation (eye · Art · Biology · Darwinism · Epistemology · Gene · Ideal (ethics · Inheritance (genetic algorithm · Literature · Mendelian inheritance · Narrative · Resistance (ecology · Selection (genetic algorithm · Sociology · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Race, Genetics, and Society · Ecology · Genetics
The Immune Self
The Curious Case of the Prisoner’s Dilemma
Refiguring Life
Making Sense of Life
Who Wrote the Book of Life?
A Symbiotic View of Life
Genetic regulatory mechanisms in the synthesis of proteins
Leçons sur les phénomènes de la vie communs aux animaux et aux végétaux
Adaptation or selection? Old issues and new stakes in the postwar debates over bacterial drug resistance
Self, Not-Self, Not Not-Self But Not Self, or The Knotty Paradoxes of ‘Autoimmunity’
Narratives of Genetic Selfhood
Narrative science and narrative knowing. Introduction to special issue on narrative science
Heredity in the Twentieth Century
| Citations per year | 0.75 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |