But in most cases even the possibility that the correlations reflect shared genes is taboo.
Interpretation
The idea that shared genes may influence correlations between traits is often avoided in discussions.
In this quote, Steven Pinker highlights the sensitivity surrounding the topic of genetic influence on behaviors and traits. He suggests that acknowledging the role of genetics in shaping correlations is often considered unacceptable or controversial, indicating a societal reluctance to confront the implications of nature versus nurture debates.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion on the role of genetics in psychology.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
Other intelligent life-forms will differ greatly in appearance - they may resemble the creature in E.T. or startle us with their beauty - but life itself is common, I'm certain.
Every carbon atom in every living thing on the planet was produced in the heart of a dying star.
While the finish given to our picture of the world by the theory of relativity has already been absorbed into the general scientific consciousness, this has scarcely occurred to the same extent with those aspects of the general problem of knowledge which have been elucidated by the quantum theory.
Nearly all men die of their medicines, not of their diseases.
This new power, which has proved itself to be such a terrifying weapon of destruction, is harnessed for the first time for the common good of our community.
Adding CO2 to the air is like throwing another blanket on the bed.
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