Soviet genetics and world science : Lysenko and the meaning of heredity / [Julian Huxley].
- Julian Huxley
- Date:
- 1949
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Soviet genetics and world science : Lysenko and the meaning of heredity / [Julian Huxley]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
71/266 page 55
![urinite trend to agrobiology and their allies have invited us to recognize the rational elements in bourgeois biological science and not to break our links with so-called world science. It is true that we Michurinites do not have the same conception as the Morganists as to what classical biological science has bequeathed to us, nor as to what the Morganists call contemporary world biological science. The content they give to this term is territorial, not theoretical. World biological science is represented by the most progressive science [la science d'avant-garde] at each stage of its history. To-day, the most progressive materialist biological science is the Michurinite tendency of Soviet agrobiology. ' Is it not extraordinary that in our country, where dialectical materialism is the methodological basis of science, with an undeniably revolutionary character, there appear from time to time dreams of the unity of our science with contemporary foreign science ? ' This at least is plain : we know now that the U.S.S.R. does not believe in the unity of science. But it is worth recalling that world science in any branch is represented not merely by its actual avant-garde ten dencies, but also by the body of knowledge accumulated by past generations of scientific workers. And Prezent ( 2 ; p. 137) makes himself still clearer when he is treating of free scientific discussion. ' No body forbids and nobody can forbid discussion in science. Let us accordingly discuss within the frame work [à l'intérieur même] of the Michurinite tendency, the best way of studying this doctrine, and applying it in practice. But it is high time to demand from you your participation in the struggle against the theories of foreign biologists' (The translation in 3 , p. 602 runs : The Morganists want a discussion. But we shall not discuss with the Morganists (applause) ; we shall continue 5 55](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18022777_0072.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
