Abstract
Theodosius Dobzhansky has been studied for how he integrated field naturalism and laboratory experimentation in ways that helped produce the Modern Synthesis, as well as how he leveraged biological expertise to support liberal and cosmopolitan values amidst Second World War and the Cold War. Moreover, Dobzhansky has been central in analyses of the institutionalization of genetics in Brazil, where he spent several years. This article situates Dobzhansky's Brazilian research within the science of variation and the politics of diversity. I conclude by raising questions about how the ways in which science figured in politics depended on ideas about the role of scientists in society whichwere advanced in parallel, suggesting research on the "co-production" of natural and social orders.
Highlights
Theodosius Dobzhansky has been studied for how he integrated field naturalism and laboratory experimentation in ways that helped produce the Modern Synthesis, as well as how he leveraged biological expertise to support liberal and cosmopolitan values amidst Second World War and the Cold War
The Russian-American evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky has been the subject of considerable philosophical and historical scholarship, including how he integrated the methods of field naturalism and laboratory experimentation in ways that helped produce the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis and how he leveraged his biological expertise to defend liberal, cosmopolitan, and democratic values in the midst of the Second World War, the Cold War, and the problematization of race (Lewontin, 1974; Gould, Lewontin, 1979; Mayr, Provine, 1980; Beatty, 1987a, 1987b; Paul, 1987; Adams, 1994; Gould, 2002; Gannett, 2013; Subramanian, 2014; Yudell, 2014; Jackson, Depew, 2017)
Dobzhansky has been at the center of analyses on the institutionalization of genetics as a science in Brazil, where he spent most of his time outside of Russia and the US with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation (Glick, 1994, 2008; Cunha, 1998; Marinho, 2001; Pavan, Cunha, 2003; Araújo, 2004; Sião 2007; Formiga, 2008; Souza et al, 2013; Magalhães, Vilela, 2014; Souza, Santos, 2014; Santos, Silva, Gibbon, 2015)
Summary
“A most bountiful source of inspiration:” Dobzhansky’s evolution of tropical populations, and the science and politics of genetic variation. Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.26, n.1, jan.-mar. Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.26, n.1, jan.-mar. 2019, p.281-297
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