Paul asks:
Mike,
What can the Jensen stuff inspire among a group already committed to the
cultural historical nature of the mind (a commitment within which there are
obviously wide differences), especially since it seems that everyone is
aware of him (how could one not be aware?) I'd be curious to know why you
think the obvious issue that Rachel first raised concerning the racial
category "black, Afro-american, etc" hasn't been sufficient to widely
discredit him. It doesn't surprise me that Jensen exists, what surprises is
the wide spread willingness to entertain these ideas among folks who you
would think should know better. It's almost as though he would have to
prove a "dumb gene", absolutely dominant, that African ancestry brings. But
even then, the existence of different "races" in Africa (Bantu, Nilotic,
etc.) would be necessary.
-------
A few folks took the time to write saying they wanted to see this material.
Thanks to Nate for posting my paper, first written almost 20 yeas ago,
which touches on other aspects of the problem.. I thought it would be
posted on the xmca web page -- my fault for not being explicit. so apologies
to those not interested.
I will have to go to the web page myself to see which of the several
reviews I have posted, including one that discusses the socially constructed
nature of the concept of race in some detail.
But to answer your question, Paul. It is my strong impression that everyone
who reads this list is NOT aware of Jensen or of the burgeoning field of
behavioral genetics applied to human characteristics. I do sort of keep
up with this topic which I had to review for revisions of our textbook
on human development recently, and still I found several of the critiques
informative.
This topic is great concern to me. I do not think that committment to
the cultural historical nature of mind is sufficient to allow those
seeking to develop a chat perspective to ignore this form of discourse
and its foundations. These people are seeking just the kind of nomoethic
explanations you raised in your earlier message on other topics and for
sure their technologies are central devices affecting the flow of people
through community college systems.
I can't spend more time here at present, but will return to the issue. First
I will check to see what part of the set of essays were posted.
mike
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