ABSTRACT

New forms of coercion had to be sought within the individual. Specifically human nature, separated from its previous interconnectedness with divine nature, now had cognitive operations at its core. Thus the underlying properties of the human intellect came to match those of the world outside it and the study of both to resemble each other. In the relationship between genes and psychological characteristics, genes are prior. True, the environment may act back on them, somatic entities such as enzymes may work backwards to influence gene expression, and natural selection makes behaviour ultimately responsible for genetic change. Coinciding with second-wave eugenics, today’s cognitive geneticists have revived concern about “low intelligence within the band of normal” or “mild mental retardation,” a category that had become almost obsolete between the two waves.