The Science of Human Perfection PDF

Rating: (1 reviews) Author: Nathaniel Comfort ISBN : 9780300198195 New from $20.25 Format: PDF

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Review

"'A beautifully written account of how genes became central to American medicine.' (Science) 'An intriguing history... Comfort provides some complex food for thought about the balance between creating good for individuals and for the human species, and about the ways we define the methods we use.' (Publishers Weekly)"

About the Author

Nathaniel Comfort is associate professor, Department of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, and a participant in The Oral History of Human Genetics project. He contributes to such publications as the New York Times Book Review, Utne Reader, Science, and Trends in Genetics.

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• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 14, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300198191
• ISBN-13: 978-0300198195
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

The Science of Human Perfection PDF

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I had no grand expectations for this book on the history of medical genetics, an area which I knew nothing about and wasn't particularly interested in. Nathaniel Comfort got me interested very quickly. I don't typically put much in Amazon book reviews regarding the book's actual content, because I don't want to give too much of the book away. However, for this book, I must make an exception, because its construction, philosophy, and historiography are fascinating, and are necessary to the explanation of what is fascinating about the book.

The book's philosophy is an intriguing one, which shows a strong historical vein that runs through both eugenics AND medical genetics. Such a thesis can prove dangerous very quickly, as one might imagine, but Comfort is very careful about how he does this, avoiding normativity to lay out the facts and draw upon isomorphisms between the disciplines, and grounding both in an historical tension that exists between Garrodian theory and Galtonian theory. This is a heterodox and original take on genetics, the thesis being that there is struggle between the biometrics and population of Galton, on the one hand, and the biochemical and individual (i.e. particular organism), on the other. From this philosophical starting point, Comfort traces an history that sees Johns Hopkins University as central, in many respects, to the formal codification and professionalization of the discipline of medical genetics. Comfort considers the politics, economics, social aspects, institutional formation, and prevailing scientific themes.

Maybe the only complaint I have is how little there is in the way of actual science in the book, but that increases the accessibility of the work, I think.