THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  SYDNEY
  CENTRE for HUMAN ASPECTS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY    
  announces the 1997 TEMPLETON LECTURE to be given by

  PROFESSOR RICHARD LEWONTIN

  DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY,
  HARVARD UNIVERSITY

  "BIOLOGY AS A SOCIAL WEAPON"

  6.00 PM THURSDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 1997
  IN THE STEPHEN ROBERTS THEATRE, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

  Enquiries to Associate Professor James Beattie 9351 3797
  Dr Bob Hunter 9351 2220
  Dr Valerie Morris 9351 2429
  email: valm@mail.usyd.edu.au (Val Morris)
 

Richard C. Lewontin is Professor of Zoology  at Harvard University and one
of the world's leading geneticists.  His  many contributions to the subject
have been both original and provocative, as much the result of his
commitment to his social view of science as to the scientific content
itself. In the words of Stephen J. Gould: "He is the most brilliant
scientist I know and his work embodies........the very best in genetics,
combined with a powerful political and moral vision of how science, properly
interpreted and used to empower all the people, might truly help us to be
free."     

Abstract:
      The lecture concerns the movement that began in the nineteenth
century, permeating the popular literature of the time, and which has
accelerated up to the present time to explain the manifest differences in
status, wealth, health and social power that exist between individuals,
races, national groups, and the sexes as a consequence of inborn inherited
differences. The problem has arisen because the revolutions of the 18th
Century established societies that claimed to be based on equality,
destroying the old inequalities of the aristrocratic societies.  It is
clear, however,  that there are still immense inequalities and the evident
contradiction between the actual state of society and the promise of the
English, French and American revolutions cries out for an explanation. The
result has been the claim that all ARTIFICIAL inequalities were abolished
leaving the NATURAL inequalities to manifest themselves.
     The lecture will examine the claim that we are determined by our genes
and show that this claim is bad biology, motivated by an ideological
commitment. It will criticize the metaphor of genes as self- reproducing
entities that determine our characteristics and will also show that the
metaphor of "development" is similarly flawed.  The lecture will illustrate
what the correct relationships between  genes, environment, random
developmental processes and the organism really are.  

WORKSHOP 
   conducted by PROFESSOR RICHARD LEWONTIN
   Harvard University and the Science Board Santa Fe Institute 

   "Catastrophe, Chaos and Complexity"
   Friday, 28th of November 1997
   9.30 am to 12.30 pm
   Old Geology Lecture Theatre A11 (near the Footbridge on Paramatta Rd) 
   University of Sydney

   With responses from:

   Professor Terry Bossomaier (Information Technology, Charles Sturt University)
   Professor David Green (Information Technology, Charles Sturt University)
   Dr. Arran Gare (Philosophy and Cultural Inquiry, Swinburne University)

   Cost: $10 and $5 concession.  Morning tea included.
   Enquiries to Peter Farleigh 9517 2938
                Bob Hunter 9351 2220
	        Valerie Morris 9351 2429

   email: p.farleigh@ieee.org


Richard C. Lewontin is Professor of Zoology  at Harvard University and one
of the world's leading geneticists.  His  many contributions to the subject
have been both original and provocative, as much the result of his
commitment to his social view of science as to the scientific content
itself. In the words of Stephen J. Gould: "He is the most brilliant
scientist I know and his work embodies........the very best in genetics,
combined with a powerful political and moral vision of how science, properly
interpreted and used to empower all the people, might truly help us to be
free."     

He is the author, with Richard Levins, of "The Dialectical Biologist" (Harvard 
1985). This book is suggested reading, though not essential, for the workshop.