Isn't this a super-touchy issue. But why not just point out the absence of more important type of intelligence among those whom Watson believes superior. Why not question the "intelligence" Watson believes so important?
Marx's argued that modern, scientific technological development is a response to the need to increase surplus value through the relative increase of labor productivity in the market. Ergo that mathematico-logical aspect of human culture has become the defining characteristic of "intelligence" in general, the basis of IQ tests, in the capitalist social formation, to the detrminent and depreciation of the other forms of intelligence that make up our higher mental functions, the logico-mathematical the intelligence that transformed the human body into a machine in service of the bottom line of the economic system for which all that exists can be reduced to a monetary value. So that's the dominant one in oourr society.
And what a sad intellgience it has proved to be, a grisly intellegence with no moral foundation, a cold white-coated sterile intelligence for which life is something isobable in a petri dish. A dismal intelligence whose great accomplishments include devices that cause people to lose sight of the wondrous star strewn skies in exchange glowing screens of artificial light and bombs capable of eradicating unimaginable spaces and uncountable beings, etc. etc, a sad grim intelligence. In whose service this intelligence that Watson talks about ??
(and BTW wasn't he a thief, stealing the very evidence that gave him fame? )
But what about all the other types of human intelligence?? moral and artistic intelligences? The intelligences that really make life worth living. I believe Duke Ellington's musical discoveries have brought more joy to humanity, whether folks are aware of it or not when listening to any contemporary music since 1940, than anything developed out of cracking the DNA code. That Martin Luther King demonstrated a greater understanding of morality and courage than any Bonhoffer, Tillich, etc. And what greater example of dignity than Poitier. Take the African contribution out of our world and what a sad place it would be . . .
Long live peanut butter, the banjo, jazz, Ralph Bunche, Nelson Mandela, and so many other messengers of that deep beautiful cultural and social intelligence we owe to Africa and Africans!!!
It's good to see the outrage against Watson, sad to see that it doesn't take into account all that we owe African cultural intelligence.
Paul
Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, there is a kind of sanctimonious mob reaction to Watson's remarks.
We have been here before with THIS issue and one does not have to go back
to Latin. We might start with Larry Summers re gender.
The crux of the matter seems to me to be the following in Watson's case:
"all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is
the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really".
The "them" appears to apply to people of African decent, which includes
everyone
on XMCA if one wants to take that implication seriously, but really, to
people who
remained in Africa (a hugelyl heterogeneous continent) when our more
immediate
predecessors migrated elsewhere, including the Australian outback, the north
of Norway, and
island of Hokaido (for whom similar claims have been made).
In my view, the man is badly misinformed. "The testing" he refers to is
not like the kind of test for
genetic markers, HIV, etc that he is used to dealing with, and scholars
like Sternberg and Grigorenko,
following on a long line of work (the early history of which is traced by SJ
Gould, Gustav Jahoda, in my monograph
of 1996, the Handbook of Cross Cultural Psychology, where the work of Dasen,
Serpell, and others
is described says NO SUCH THING.
However, if he wants to site literature to support his point of view, he can
find it. Arthur Jensen has retired
but he has not disappeared. Nor have some other behavioral geneticists who
make the same argument.
I would not be surprised to see them surface in his defense as time passes.
We will see.
Remind me not to make ill informed pronouncements about DNA that offend
people's deep beliefs.
mike
On 10/20/07, Wolff-Michael Roth wrote:
>
> I don't want to be overly picky, but it is "rero" (Lat. for accused)
> not "reo," as I seem to be recalling from my Latin lessons some 40
> years ago. :-)
> Cheers,
> Michael
>
>
>
> On 19-Oct-07, at 11:43 PM, E. Knutsson wrote:
>
> In dubio pro reo? No doubt! Immediate crucifixion! And where is
> Barabbas? Or
> Giordano Bruno?
>
> On 2007-10-19, at 15:55, David Preiss wrote:
> >
> > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7052416.stm
> >
> > In his Sunday Times interview, Dr James Watson was quoted as saying
> > he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all
> > our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is
> > the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really".
> >
> > He was further quoted as saying that his hope was that everyone was
> > equal but that "people who have to deal with black employees find
> > this is not true".
> >
> >
> >
> > Just disgusting, racist, horrible...
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> > David Preiss, Ph.D.
> > Subdirector de Extensión y Comunicaciones
> > Escuela de Psicología
> > Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
> > Av Vicuña Mackenna 4860
> > Macul, Santiago
> > Chile
> >
> > Fono: 3544605
> > Fax: 3544844
> > e-mail: davidpreiss@uc.cl
> > web personal: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
> > web institucional: http://www.epuc.cl/profesores/dpreiss
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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