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The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture Paperback – July 6, 2004

by Matt Ridley (Author)

78 customer reviews

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Armed with extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley turns his attention to the nature-versus-nurture debate in a thoughtful book about the roots of human behavior.

Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. With the decoding of the human genome, we now know that genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“An engrossing study of what makes us who we are … conveyed with insight and style.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“Terrific popular science.” (Booklist (starred review))

“Ridley is simply one of the best science writers in the business.” (Hartford Courant)

“Thoughtful and entertaining.” (Salon.com)

“NATURE VIA NURTURE proposes a new way of looking at an ongoing debate.” (Washington Post Book World)

“Fascinating and important information from the world of science.” (New York Times Book Review)

About the Author

Matt Ridley is the award-winning, bestselling author of several books, including The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves; Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters; and The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. His books have sold more than one million copies in thirty languages worldwide. He writes regularly for The Times (London) and The Wall Street Journal, and is a member of the House of Lords. He lives in England.

Product details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (July 6, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006000679X
ISBN-13: 978-0060006792
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 78 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #657,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #700 in Books > Medical Books > Basic Sciences > Genetics
- #1713 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Anthropology > General
- #3430 in Books > Science & Math > History & Philosophy

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End of the nature nurture debate.

May 31, 2014

Format: Unknown BindingVerified Purchase

It is hard to disagree with Matt Ridley's basic argument, that it is long time this debate was put to bed. The book gets five stars because Matt quotes and discusses a lot of really interesting studies. Modern work on genetic switching show that our genetic make up is not cast in stone and that what we do and experience changes what we are. Given that it is in a sense all nature, Matt comes down fairly heavily on the more fixed aspects of nature. Some studies are truly surprising, like those that show twins bought up apart are MORE alike than those brought up together. But of course all these things are statistical, so you tend to miss what falls through the cracks. For example in a comparison of kids with and without criminal parents brought up by non-criminal families and with criminal-element families. Having criminal parents certainly increased your chances of getting in trouble, as does growing up in a criminal family, but something like 70 percent of those with criminal parents in criminal families did not have a problem. So the differences we are looking at, although big, hang between the 15 and 25 % of all groups that do get in trouble.That is big crack, and suggests there is almost some innate tendency to be honest, or at least not get caught. I did not find the section on free will very convincing, but that is okt, I really enjoyed the book, I learned quite a lot and it made me think. What more do you want?

6 people found this helpful

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Science Awakens to What How the Environment Impacts on Genes

July 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is a very good book about the confluence of factors that makes us human. It has always been obvious to parents that there is an interplay of nature and nurture that go into creating a child. It took the scientific community a little longer to realize this. But this book determines for the reader how genes are impacted by biology and environmental factors to make us who we are.

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I almost skipped this one but...

July 11, 2003

Format: Audio CassetteVerified Purchase

"Nature via Nurture"; the title sounds like a dead horse that doesn't need to be beaten any more. I decided to pick this one up because I love Ridley's work, and because it is read by the author. What a treat that is! With the author reading the book, you know that the nuances are correct, and that the abridgement isn't harming the message.
The discussions in this book are dramatically and importantly different from other discussions of "Nature/Nurture", and I can hardly recommend it strongly enough. What is different is the degree of specificity that Ridley brings to the conversation. He demonstrates from a dozen different points of view HOW causality flows both ways, from the genes to the environment and back. He also pokes holes in logical fallacies one hears all the time - for example, the assertion that a feature is not genetic because the specific genes have not (and in some cases may not ever) been identified. A well-constructed twin study positively identifies heritability of traits; tracking that heritability back to a spot on a chromosome is useful and interesting but not necessary.
There is also basic science here that the lay reader might not otherwise learn for years. For instance, until very recently it was thought that there was a one to one correlation between genes and their proteins. It was also unknown what, if any, purpose breaking genes apart into exons on the chromosome served. Now we have discovered that many - ninety five on one mouse gene - different versions of one exon can exist on the chromosome, allowing one gene to make many different versions of its protein. Different versions mediated by... environment, of course.
Much of the information here is counter-intuitive. For instance, the more egalitarian a society is, the more the heritabilaty of traits becomes manifest. Potentially confusing, certainly mind-bending, and who better than Ridley to explain it?
If you are interested in biology, read this book.

49 people found this helpful

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Maddenly Engaging

July 9, 2006

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Another Ridley home run! He's batting a thousand. Not bad for a popularizer of science.

Don't let the book's title fool you. If Ridley merely resolved the nurture/nature debate, which most of us already know, the book might be a bust. However, Ridley's means of resolution is an unsuspected, yet dramatic, one. The book's strengths lie in applying the resolution of this dilemma to other dilemmas. Not that this approach "answers" these dilemmas; indeed, maybe the reverse, it seems to complicate them. Therein lies the book's brilliance and novelty, while being entirely scientific.

For example, 18th C. philosopher David Hume raised doubts about humans' causal inferences, i.e., "cause-and-effect." E.g. The light goes out (effect). Caused by what: the filament, the glass, the wiring, the switch, the panel, or maybe something else? Many people, including scientists, dismissed Hume's skepticism as extreme and anti-scientific. Ridley's Fourth Chapter vindicates Hume, more dramatically than Hume himself (or Popper in 1944). The subject for discussion is "schizophrenia." The perennial nature/nurture debate and the theories its drawn are investigated, and given Ridley's insight and science's "evidence," the putative "cause(s)" of schizophrenia are all found wanting. How wanting? Incredibly wanting. But ironically, it's not all wrong. Mostly wrong. And it's revealed in, through, and by the prism of nature/nurture dispute, seen through the topic of schizophrenia. (The subject of causality in human behavior makes an important reappearance later.)

[N.B. A cautionary note. Chap. 3 seemed uncharacteristically long-winded and redundant. It passes and never recurs.]

Ridley's encyclopedic knowledge (what field of knowledge does he not know?) is breathtaking. His ability to coordinate all this diverse, even disparate, knowledge in defense of this thesis is extraordinary. To keep all the scientific jargon on an accessible level is masterful. To use an artful device with elegant prose adds creativity and imagination. The implications of these insights are even more stunning. Science does not get better than this!

4 people found this helpful

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