International Journal of Comparative Psychology

Richard Lerner seems to have set himself four tasks in Final Solutions: one, to argue that scientific theory, in this case a theory about human nature, has impHcations for social policy and, in turn, that scientific theory is not immune from social influences; two, to demonstrate the horrors to which one erroneous view of human nature—biological or genetic determinism—led when it informed social policy in the Nazi state; three, to show that this error is alive and well and continuing to do damage; and four, to make the case for a different view of human development— developmental contextualism.