Tabery, James (2008) R.A. Fisher, Lancelot Hogben, and the Origin(s) of Genotype-Environment Interaction. [Preprint]

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Abstract

This essay examines the origin(s) of genotype-environment interaction, or G×E. “Origin(s)” and not “the origin” because the thesis is that there were actually two distinct concepts of G×E at this beginning: a biometric concept, or G×EB, and a developmental concept, or G×ED. R. A. Fisher, one of the founders of population genetics and the creator of the statistical analysis of variance, introduced the biometric concept as he attempted to resolve one of the main problems in the biometric tradition of biology—partitioning the relative contributions of nature and nurture responsible for variation in a population. Lancelot Hogben, an experimental embryologist and also a statistician, introduced the developmental concept as he attempted to resolve one of the main problems in the developmental tradition of biology—determining the role that developmental relationships between genotype and environment played in the generation of variation. To argue for this thesis, I outline Fisher and Hogben’s separate routes to their respective concepts of G×E; then these separate interpretations of G×E are drawn on to explicate a debate between Fisher and Hogben over the importance of G×E, the first installment of a persistent controversy. Finally, Fisher’s G×EB and Hogben’s G×ED are traced beyond their own work into mid-20th C. population and developmental genetics, and then into the infamous IQ Controversy of the 1970’s.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Tabery, James
Keywords:	Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Biometry, Developmental Biology, Eugenics, Genetics, Genotype-Environment Interaction (GxE), IQ Controversy, Lancelot Hogben, Nature-Nurture Debate, Population Genetics, R.A. Fisher
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Biology General Issues > Causation General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
Depositing User:	James Tabery
Date Deposited:	27 Sep 2008
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2010 15:17
Item ID:	4209
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Biology General Issues > Causation General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
Date:	May 2008
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/4209

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