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C00002 00002	lewont[w85,jmc]		Notes for review of Lewontin
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lewont[w85,jmc]		Notes for review of Lewontin

	I'll read the book with a hypothesis, to be confirmed or
refuted or equivocated by the experience.  The hypothesis is that
Lewontin, and the Science for the People people, are Marxist
"fundamentalists" analogous to religious fundamentalists.  Fundamentalists
according to the present idea, are people who have experienced
prolonged doctrinal defeats at the hands of reason and who
discover that they can recover all their lost ground by giving
up reason except for lawyer's reason.  Lawyer's reason is reason
in support of a cause.  It may be logical in drawing consequences
from the facts it chooses to take into account, but it selects
those facts with regard to the case to be made rather than with
a disinterested pursuit of truth.  Circumscription may be of some
help in explaining this kind of reasoning.  Perhaps it would even
be worthwhile to point out the validity of some of Lewontin's
arguments, given the facts he chooses to take into account.

1985 Jan 2 - Lynn Scarlett says Reason will probably want the review.