HALDANE, J. B. S.

John Burdon Sanderson or J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) was born in Oxford on November 5 and, as the author of The Causes of Evolution (1932), became a founder of what was later called the modern evolutionary synthesis of population genetics. Haldane was also an influential popularizer of science who in essays, fiction, and even verse emphasized the need to develop an ethical framework within which human beings may assimilate emerging technologies. He died on December 1 in Bhubaneswar, India.

With remarkable prescience, Haldane foresaw discoveries in molecular biology and genetic engineering. In Daedalus or Science and the Future (1923), he argued that scientific progress in these areas would bring confusion and misery to humankind unless accompanied by progress in ethics. Ideas from Daedalus influenced his friend Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World (1932), and Haldane served as the model for the biologist in Huxley's Antic Hay (1923). Forty years later, in 1963, Haldane also introduced the concept of clonal reproduction that has since inspired much controversy and discussion in bioethics.

Haldane further maintained that science provides at least one of the key ingredients to moral progress, this being high regard for truth and a refusal to jump to unjustifiable conclusions. Indeed in one statement of this agnostic attitude, Haldane suggested that "the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose" (1927, p. 298).

Haldane's views in regard to the ethical influence of science were opposed by Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) in Icarus or the Future of Science (1924). Russell argued that technical scientific knowledge does not make people more sensible in their aims or more self-controlled and kind. In his advocacy of a science-based ethical framework, Haldane thought that science would exert an essentially progressive influence on society and politics, and that general agreement could be reached on conceptions of the good, a view that remains highly controversial.

Seeing it in part as a bridge between science and ethics, Haldane was also for years attracted to Marxist Communism, which he embraced during the 1930s. He later abandoned this affiliation when the science of genetics was suppressed in the Soviet Union under the direction of Trofim Lysenko (1898–1976). Ironically that crisis proved one of his own predictions about Soviet science, that "there is … a very grave danger for science in so close an association with the State … it may lead to dogmatism in science and to the suppression of opinions which run counter to official theories. …" (1932, p. 225.)

Another essay by Haldane, "On Being the Right Size" (1927), virtually created analytic morphology. By pointing out, for instance, that exoskeletons can only get so large before the internal organs collapse under their own weight, this essay has influenced fields as diverse as the criticism of mass urbanization, the alternative technology movement, and decentralized economics.

Also important is the fact that Haldane conducted many scientific experiments on himself (Dronamraju 1968, p. 267–275). His ethics precluded making others the subject of experiments when he himself could serve that role, a practice also followed by his father, Oxford physiologist John Scott Haldane (1860–1936).

Throughout his life Haldane emphasized how science and technology create new ethical situations, although different sciences impact ethics in different manners. Physics and biology affect our ethical outlook by altering views about the fundamental nature of the world and the interrelationships between all living beings. For Haldane, Darwinian evolution imposes a new set of ethical values on the relationship between humans and other species. Anthropology shows that any given ethical code is only one of a number practiced with equal conviction and almost equal success. Advanced communication technologies create new duties by pointing out previously unexpected responsibilities for world events.

In 1957 Haldane moved to India, where he was deeply influenced by Hinduism. He saw the Darwinian theory of evolution from a fresh perspective, noting that Christian theologians had drawn a sharp distinction between humans and other species, whereas no such distinction had been made in India. According to Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain ethics, for instance, animals have rights and duties, and the adherents of these religions are duty-bound to adopt a non-violent approach to biological research. He followed this principle in directing the research of his students in India in animal behavior, genetics, human genetics, and the biometry of both animal and plant species.

KRISHNA R. DRONAMRAJU

SEE ALSO Brave New World;Posthumanism;Russell, Bertrand.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clark, Ronald William. (1984). J. B. S.: The Life and Work of J. B. S. Haldane. New York: Oxford University Press. An extended biography.

Dronamraju, Krishna R. (1985). Haldane: The Life and Work of J. B. S. Haldane with Special Reference to India. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press. An account of Haldane's life and work in India.

Dronamraju, Krishna R. (1995). Haldane's Daedalus Revisited. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dronamraju, Krishna R., ed. (1968). Haldane and Modern Biology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. A memorial tribute by distinguished colleagues.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1923). Daedalus, or Science and the Future. London: Kegan Paul.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1927). Possible Worlds and Other Essays. London: Chatto & Windus.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1932a). The Causes of Evolution. London: Longmans. Reprinted by Princeton University Press (1990). Established the foundation for the synthetic theory of evolution.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1932b). The Inequality of Man and Other Essays. London: Chatto and Windus. A collection of some of Haldane's outstanding popular essays.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1959). "An Indian Perspective of Darwin." Centennial Review 3: 357–363. Theory of evolution from a Hindu point of view.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1963). "Biological Possibilities for the Human Species in the Next Ten Thousand Years." In Man and His Future, ed. Gordon Wolstenholme. Boston: Little Brown.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1964). "The Implications of Genetics for Human Society." In Genetics Today: Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Genetics, vol. 2, ed. S. J. Geerts. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1985). On Being the Right Size and Others Essays, ed. John Maynard Smith. New York: Oxford University Press. Reprints the influential essay "On Being the Right Size" (1927).

Russell, Bertrand. (1924). Icarus or the Future of Science. London: Kegan Paul.