The DNA made me do it
Sir:Richard Dawkins informs us that we are all only survival machines driven by our dig- ital DNA. All else is mere 'vitalism' (`The telephone exchange of life', 11June, 1994). If so, Dawkins can hardly blame the poor vitalists for acting as they do. Their DNA makes them do it. Moreover, they can now tell Dawkins that his supposedly rational views are only products of his own DNA, and can therefore be ignored. This type of reductionist reductio ad absur- dum was known as far back as Epicurus, and has repeatedly been highlighted by figures like the physicist Maxwell, Aldous Huxley and Popper. Dawkins and his hero Crick do not appear to have addressed the dilemma. It indicates that their biological insights, how- ever true, cannot be the whole truth.
David Elder
Department of Biochemistry, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
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