Conference on Biology and Politics

不久前，有一段时间，各种学术学科舒舒服服地并排坐在一起，每一门学科都有自己独特的文学和个性。科学知识的急剧增长，更不用说现代生活的国际创伤带来的社会态度的相当大的转变，甚至改变了大学教学和研究的根深蒂固的工作方式。多学科议程正在生根发芽，各部门的围墙正在瓦解。想一想政治学、心理学和生物学这三个看似截然不同的领域。在过去的几十年里，政治学家擅长研究政府的制度动态；心理学家使用弗洛伊德和巴甫洛夫的工具探索人类的心理；生物学家认为细胞的工作是尖端专业。今天，政治学家已经开始将人类社会行为作为遗传活动的产物进行研究；心理学家利用神经科学技术来描述不同大脑中心在决策过程中的功能；生物学家从各种物种的基因组中提取候选DNA，以寻找表现和适应方面的共同点。缓慢但肯定的是，他们正在从事共同的事业。将组织有史以来第一次由政治学家、心理学家和生物学家参加的全国会议，目的是发起一场协调一致的运动，以实现正式对话和有望汇集的理论和方法。简而言之，参与这场会议的学者有一个共同的愿景：基因似乎在协调人类行为的软件和化学方面发挥了作用；环境和可遗传的基因活动调控可能是影响我们的政治的一个重要因素；从长远来看，政治世界很可能是决定哪些基因将传播其数量，哪些将被证明是不足的重要力量。在这次会议上，与会者将相互阅读和批评S的论文，并朝着人类行为的新世界观迈出第一步。通过将年轻学者纳入这一事业，新一代将准备在这些领域的联系中开展研究。

There was a time, not so long ago, when the various academic disciplines sat comfortably side-by-side, each with its distinctive literature and personality. The dramatic proliferation of scientific knowledge, not to mention the considerable shifts in social attitudes brought about by the international traumas of modern life, have altered even the entrenched workways of university teaching and research. Multidisciplinary agendas are taking root and departmental walls are crumbling. Consider the three seemingly disparate fields of political science, psychology, and biology. In decades past, political scientists excelled in studying the institutional dynamics of government; psychologists probed the human psyche employing Freudian and Pavlovian tools; biologists considered the workings of the cell a cutting-edge specialty. Today, political scientists have commenced investigations of human social behavior as an artifact of genetic activity; psychologists employ the technologies of neuroscience to characterize the function of various brain centers in decision making; biologists extract candidate DNA from the genomes of sundry species in the search for commonalities in performance and adaptation. Slowly but surely they are engaging in common cause. A first-ever national meeting of political scientists, psychologists, and biologists, young and old, for the purpose of mounting a concerted drive toward formalized dialogue and a hopeful pooling of theories and methods will be organized. Put succinctly, the scholars involved in this confrence share a common vision: genes appear to play a role in orchestrating the software and chemistry of human behavior; environmental and heritable regulation of gene activity may be an important factor in influencing our politics; long-term, the world of politics could well be a significant force in determining which genes will spread their numbers and which will prove wanting. At this conference, participants shall read and critique one another''s papers and take the first steps toward a new world view of human behavior. By including young scholars in this undertaking, a new generation will be prepared to conduct research in the nexus of these fields.