Kenneth Schaffner, “Behaving: What’s Genetic, What’s Not, and Why Should We Care?” (Oxford UP, 2016)
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What is the central debate about genes versus environment that frames the book?
Hello, and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figdor, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa, and I'm co-host of the channel along with Robert Talese, Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Together, we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books and We draw from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Kenneth Schaffner, distinguished university professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. His new book, Behaving, What's Genetic, What's Not, and Why Should We Care, is just out from Oxford University Press.
The nature versus nurture debate has evolved into a genes versus environment debate, although it is also widely accepted that what we do, what we are like, and what mental illnesses we have or might be at risk for result from a complex combination of both. In this richly researched book, Schaffner assesses the impact of the enormous strides in recent decades in biology on the genetic contribution to behavior from the sequencing of the human genome and the development of a model organism, the nematode C. elegans, for explaining the relationship between genes and neural function and development. Schaffner considers the methodologies for determining genetic influence and the challenges by developmentalists and others of gene-focused research.
He also defends a creeping form of reduction in which multilevel mechanistic explanations are possible in local and specific areas of biology, but which do not support sweeping claims that we are nothing but our genes. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Kenneth Schaffner. Welcome to New Books and Philosophy.
Thank you for inviting me.
I'm very eager to be talking with you about your new book, Behaving, What's Genetic, What's Not, and Why Should We Care? And it's a great book that introduces a lot of the important advances in biology, in particular in genetics, over the past few decades, starting with the sequencing of the human genome, the development of a model organism for investigating relations between genes and neural function and development, and a lot of other sort of methodological and important developments scientific advances as well as the back and forth of, you know, studies claiming one thing about the relation between genes and behavior and then others not replicating them or having very mixed sorts of research records.
So it's a really rich discussion of the recent science and what we can derive, you know, philosophically from these views in terms of, well, the philosophical discussion about reduction, right? Are we nothing but our genes or is there a gene for X, you know, versus more as you, one of the buzzwords these days is the biopsychosocial approach, right, where the environment has a much greater role. So it's a great introduction to all of that. And before we get into the book itself, maybe we can have a little introduction about yourself. You know, how you came to write this book, your own sort of background in both biology or medicine, actually, and philosophy. And then the relation between this book and your previous book, 1993, on discovery and explanation in biology and medicine.
Sure. The discovery and explanation in biology and medicine was started all the way back in roughly 1971. I was impressed with reading Claude Bernhardt's works and thought that it was really time, since it was very early in the development of anything like a professional philosophy of biology, to try to take a... sort of synoptic approach to those kinds of issues and I was able to happily receive the Guggenheim Grant Fellowship and between 1973 and 74 began to outline that book. That took many years, filled in in the 1970s and the 1980s. The kind of work that I was doing for that led me into medical school. I finished a medical degree in 1986 and then applied what I'd learned from physiology, genetics, immunology to
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central debate about genes versus environment that frames the book?
0:01–8:23
2
How did Kenneth Schaffner’s background in medicine and philosophy lead to the writing of *Behaving*?
8:23–17:55
3
What role did the sequencing of the human genome and the C. elegans model play in reshaping behavioral genetics?
17:55–25:34
4
How does the book explain the concept of heritability and why is it often misunderstood?
25:34–32:54
5
What are the eight “rules” Schaffner proposes for linking genes, neurons, and behavior?
32:54–41:08
6
How do genome‑wide association studies (GWAS) reveal the “missing heritability” problem for traits like height and schizophrenia?
41:08–49:06
7
What is Schaffner’s view of reductionism in biology, and how does he distinguish “creeping” from sweeping reductions?
49:06–56:41
8
What future research does Schaffner plan to explore about genetics, choice, and a good life?
56:41–1:05:58
Speakers
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