SEVEN

A Positive Conclusion

WALT WHITMAN, that great man of little brain (see p.124), advised
us to "make much of negatives," and this book has heeded his
words, some might say with a vengeance. While most of us can
appreciate a cleansing broom, such an object rarely elicits much
affection; it certainly produces no integration. But I do not regard
this book as a negative exercise in debunking, offering nothing in
return once the errors of biological determinism are exposed as
social prejudice. I believe that we have much to learn about our-
selves from the undeniable fact that we are evolved animals. This
understanding cannot permeate through entrenched habits of
thought that lead us to reify and rank—habits that arise within
social contexts and support them in return. My message, as I hope
to convey it at least, is strongly positive for three major reasons.

Debunking as positive science

The popular impression that disproof represents a negative

side of science arises from a common, but erroneous, view of his-

tory. The idea of unilinear progress not only lies behind the racial

rankings that I have criticized as social prejudice throughout this

book; it also suggests a false concept of how science develops. In

this view, any science begins in the nothingness of ignorance and

moves toward truth by gathering more and more information, con-

structing theories as facts accumulate. In such a world, debunking

would be primarily negative, for it would only shuck some rotten

apples from the barrel of accumulating knowledge. But the barrel

of theory is always full; sciences work with elaborated contexts for

explaining facts from the very outset. Creationist biology was dead