Genes, determinismos y sociobiología: Usos y abusos de lenguajes y metáforas en biología

Resumen

Genes, determinism and sociobiology: uses and abuses of language and metaphors in biology.

This paper attempts to identify some of the conditions that enabled the revitalization of biological determinism in the second half of the twentieth century. It will analyze the simultaneous influence exerted by gene centrism, reductionist Positivism and a series of “traveling metaphors” that allowed the emergence of such an ambitious research program as sociobiology. It will then show that the emergence of this sub-discipline involves the reappearance of new variants of biological determinism. Due to linking the genetics of the twentieth century with some notions of Positivism, as well as a set of reified metaphors, a new biological determinism was accomplished. Finally, it will argue that despite the almost instantaneous rejection of sociobiology, the derivated “truth effects” from these discourses are installed in biology, influencing lexicons and methodologies.

key words. Gene centrism, biological determinism, reductionism, metaphorical reification, “truth effect”,  “traveling metaphor”, Positivism.