02-17-2009, 04:43 AM
quote:Huge number? Which sociologists are those? Look, this is pretty off topic for this thread, but this sort of thing comes up all the time here. This is a piece of ideology, a made up statement, not reflective of reality. There are always fringe beliefs in an area of study, the outliers with their little caucus of admirers and rarely respected. Just as with evolution, there is a very broad agreement that biology and environment are both intimately intertwined determinants of life. A sociologist who states that biology is irrelevant to social behavior is likely to be laughed out the room by his peers. Certainly you can find, for instance, astrophysicists who believe that the earth was created 4000 years ago. At most you might be referring to the cycles of academic interest. From the mechanical, clockwork universe of Isaac Newton the social sciences of the twentieth century opened the eyes of the world to the incredible influence of learning (the environment an individual is exposed to) on human behavior. And, obviously, if you are a sociologist you are like to study social conditions, not biology. And, that being said, scientist are still people and many are hemmed in by their personal basic beliefs. Remember the Michaelson-Morley experiments and the number of scientists in the 1890's who could not believe that space was not filled with an "ether" substance? How else could light waves travel through space if they were not riding on something like the water that forms an ocean wave? Well, they changed their minds. Sometimes beliefs have to give way to facts and new understandings emerge.
I was referring to the huge number of Sociologist that actually think that environment is the only influence that shapes a person. Sex,race,lineage have no bearing at all in their minds.