6 The Context of our Approach

Figure 1.7 summarizes the main streams of the intellectual tradition which converge to yield the ideas and methods we shall be discussing here.

Figure 1.7: Diagram of the intellectual traditions leading to modern mathematical genetic methodology.

The streams divide and merge again at several places. The picture is not intended to be a comprehensive history of statistical or behavioral genetics, so a number of people whose work is extremely important to both disciplines are not mentioned. Rather, it tries to capture the main lines of thought and the ``cast of characters'' who have been especially influential in our own intellectual development. Not all of us would give the same weight to all the lines of descent.