title: What makes genetically modified organisms so distasteful?
abstract: The debate concerning genetically modified organisms goes on unabated and reflects some genuine concerns. I suggest that a significantly large number of educated people believe that moving genes around between species is intuitively wrong and that this is based on an essentialist view of the world. This essentialist view has a long history that dates back to Plato and Aristotle and was eventually overthrown by the population thinking of Charles Darwin. The essentialist, who is antipathetic to population thinking, will naturally find the transfer of a gene from one organism to another distasteful, and this, I argue, is the result of Platonic thinking, which still remains and casts its spell over us today.
authors.affiliation: IACR-Rothamsted, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK AL5 2JQ. Keith.Davis@bbsrc.ac.uk
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Davies
mesh_terms: D003469:Culture; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D010684:Philosophy / Q000266:history*