User talk:Tijfo098/Sandbox

Lewontin's genetic argument is an influential thesis put forward by Richard Lewontin that human race is an invalid taxonomic construct. Lewontin first formulated the argument as a conclusion of his landmark 1972 study on the ... 17 loci, and later expanded on it in his book.... (

Lewontin's findings from his 1972 study have been replicated numerous times since, and his conclusion has been widely cited, including a 1998 position statement of the American Anthropological Association. Lewontin conclusion relied however on the implicit assumption that the small variance across groups carries no significant or useful information.

With advances in genetics the early 2000s, it became feasible to test the assumption whether the between group variation carries no useful information. A landmark paper was Rosenberg et al. 2002 paper in Science, which analysed 377 loci based on PCA techniques. In 2003, A.W.F. Edwards wrote a position paper intended to draw attention to what Edwards called Lewontin's fallacy. Citing new evidence, including Rosenberg's study, Edwards argues, ... Popular science books, like X and Y, adopted this terminology.

Edward's paper was also mentioned in an op-ed editorial in New York Times. Lewontin wrote a reply on the web site of the Social Science Research Council

Following Rosenberg et al., newer studies have exploited the lowering cost of SNP alaysis. Li et al., studied 650,000 SNPs ... with a high degree of accuracy.

PCA-based studies have not been unviersally accepted as a proof that Lewontin's argument is a fallacy. Sociologist sunch-and-such, disagree, and so did some philosophers of science. One of the counter-arguments is that common sense concept of 'race' is not well reflected in these studies. Robin O. Andreasen disagrees on the argument that it's the "common sense" notion of race which is flawed.