MAY 22 1972

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Social Research

AN INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
EDITED BY THE GRADUATE FACULTY 66 West 12th St., New York, N.Y. 10011, ORegon 5-2700
May 16, 1972

Professor Joshua Lederberg
Stanford University
Department of Biology
Stanford, California 94305

Dear Professor Lederberg:

We are planning a special issue of Social Research on the "Idea
of Human Nature and the Natural." This is a sub@jet which we feel is both
of continuing historical interest, and of great particular importance at
this moment. Our culture seems to be characterized by a tremendous yearn-
ing for the "natural", a category often counterposed to the allegedly
destructive and life-denying qualities of civilization.

What we have in mind is an issue which will include a series of
essays dealing with various aspects of this subject. It is our intention
to include essays concerned with the following abbreviated list of topics:
a) the idea of natural law: its role in jurisprudence and the relationship
between what is either tacitly or explicitly forbidden by a society and what
is considered to be a natural law; »b) the idea of the primitive; c) the
relationship between animal and human nature; e) the belief in the infinite
maleability of human nature implicit in theories of totalitarianism, i.e.,
the implicit belief in the infinite controllability of human behavior (B. F.
Skinner might be discussed in this context); f) an historical account of
the concept of human nature; g) what we have and ean learn about human
nature from various disciplines in the social and behavioral stiences.

I would like to invite you to contribute an essay to this special
issue and hppe you might be willing to consider writing a paper’ which deals
with the geneticist's view of human nature. I have in mind a paper which
addresses itself to what genetics can tell us about the social aspects of
human behavior and which might, if you saw fit, touch upon the issue of genetic
racial differences. It would be a great privilege to be able to include
such an essay in this special issue.

We are planning the issue for the Spring, 1973 and therefore you
would have a considerabie time in which to write, ds our deadline for
copy is December lst, 1972. I very much hope that you will respond postitively
to this invitation, and I look forward to hearing from you.

iO Ah

“Arien Mack, Ph.D,
Editor

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