Re: [xmca] Nobel prize talks stupid things about human intelligence

Well, the issue here is (at least from my point of view) in part how the mass
media works ("sanctimonious mob reaction" being the outcome of a growing moral
panic). The issue is also whether academe should close ranks and support this
sanctimonious current, or whether it should bide its time and aspire to
mobilize some kind of rational, temperate counterweight to the usual "mob"
chain reaction.

According to this article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3075664.ece

... he has said that: "To those who have drawn the inference from my words that
Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise
unreservedly. This is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view,
there is no scientific basis for such a belief."

"This is not a discussion about superiority or inferiority, it is about seeking
to understand differences, about why some of us are great musicians and others
great engineers."

"[S]cience is not here to make us feel good."

Perhaps he was misquoted, who knows? He is 79 years old, a grand old man.
Should every non-conformist specimen of the species be ostracized for being
wrong or misquoted? How would the history of science look like without
scientists making mistakes? Who wants to cast the first dogmatist stone?

E.

On 2007-10-20, at 18:21, Mike Cole 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 <mroth@uvic.ca> 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
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
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Received on Sat Oct 20 10:46 PDT 2007