Is it really all in our genes?

1. The exert from Pinker's article that I chose was the quote from Thomas Hobbes in the Leviathan:
"Hereby it is manifest that during the time when men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war is of every man against every man.… In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently… no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, a continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." To this statement, I definitely agree.

2. The first part of this quote by Hobbes discussing how people without a common power will be in a condition of war against every being is very true in life because I believe everyone believes in some sort of common power that unites us humans as individuals. Without this common power, belief, or set of beliefs, individual human beings could not have achieved so much in all areas such as science, industry, and all other things.I don't necessarily see this common power as a Leviathan (armed police force and government) as Hobbes believes but I see this common power as more of a common goal, belief, or vision. This quote really made me think of how without goals or visions of the future, I don't know how I myself would have gotten as far as graduating from high school or attending college. Without this "common power" as Hobbes talks of, we as humans would be living in a world of a constant battle against everyone else and we would achieve absolutely nothing, which is why I believe this to be so important.

3. Pinker brings up the point of how much of who we are and how we act, the goals we have, and what we do everyday has to do directly with our genes. I heard this exact same argument last year in my intro-level psychology class when we covered the brain and human behavior. This thought that everything we do, think, or believe is all based on heredity and our genes is a pretty big issue in the 'science wars'. It seems to me by bringing this up he is taking a pretty large position on the side of science in the 'science wars'. From my thoughts above in parts 1 and 2 I would have to say that I have taken the view that our beliefs, goals and visions (I don't think that these things are purely based off of our genes) dictate how we achieve things as a group or individuals in society and Pinker would bring up that these goals or visions are based off of our genes and not on our environment or outside factors. So from what I see Pinker and I are on different sides of the 'science wars' for this certain topic.

So why should we as humans care about this? Would humans have been fine without a common power, belief, or goal uniting them throughout history? Would we be where we currently are in our current state of medicine, technology, industry, etc. or would we be further along without this common power?