BEYOND DIFFERENCE - A BIOLOGISTS PERSPECTIVE

This piece addresses some of the challenges to social scientific thoug ht originating from the field of evolutionary psychology and from soci al scientists committed to making biological arguments an important co mponent of the sociological discussion of gender I provide my own biol ogical perspective on these contemporary discussions, noting especiall y the different kinds of explanatory value one can expect from particu lar kinds of argument. I also call for the application of stricter sci entific standards to arguments about the evolution of sex differentiat ed human behaviors. I introduce some basic generic concepts, such as t he norm of reaction, which focus attention on the interaction between genes and environment during intra-generational development. Finally, I challenge the idea that there is a necessary correlation between hor mone levels and reproductive behavior in vertebrates.