Are there any limits to what science can ever know, and how far it can be used to change the world, or is science limited by matters of ideology, politics and power? Does the new biology tell us that we are the prisoners of our genes or does our biology make us free? Is a neutral science being misused for military purposes and the abuse of animal rights, or are the new arms race in genetic engineering and the millions of laboratory animals killed each year the inevitable consequences of a science done not’ for the people’ but to meet the needs of the military, of profit, and of a reductionist scientific imperialism? How should conditions like depression, anxiety and schizophrenia be explained—as products of disordered biochemistry, or of a disordering society? In this set of essays, the author sets out to ask and to answer these questions. Drawing on his own experience as a researcher working at the interface between biology and psychology studying the cellular mechanisms involved in learning and the storage of memory he shows how it may be possible to achieve a unified, non-reductionist science which transcends the sterile old dichotomies of biology and culture, nature and nurture, gene and environment, mind and brain. This book raises important questions about the methods, uses and purposes of science, especially the new theories and techniques of biology after the DNA revolution. Written in clear and non-technical language, the essays in Molecules and Minds will be of interest to students of biology, psychology and philosophy, or indeed to anyone concerned with understanding what the biological revolution of the last 25 years can tell us about the past, present and future of the human condition.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Steven Rose is Professor of Biology at the Open University and Director of its Brain Research Group. His previous books include the much acclaimed Chemistry of Life and Not in our Genes (both Penguin).
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