john grigg wrote:
>
> Mike Lorrey wrote:
> Funny that Gardner and his buddies don't feel the same way about the author
> of "The Bell Curve".
> (end)
>
> Actually, there were two author's who cowrote the book, Richard J.
> Herrnstein and Charles Murray. Herrnstein died shortly after the book was
> published. He was seen by critics as not having the real research
> experience to write the book, though he was a Harvard trained psychologist.
>
> I am quoting from two separate author's from the May 1995 (Volume 40, Number
> 5) issue of Contemporary Psychology, APA's journal of book reviews.
>
> a quote from a book review by Donald Dorfman:
> One would presume that The Bell Curve represents Herrnstein's final summing
> up of a lifetime of objective scholarly research published in peer-reviewed
> scientific journals on the genetic basis of IQ.
>
> Regrettably, the media seem to be totally unaware of the fact that the
> deceased Harvard professor never published any scientific research on the
> genetic basis of IQ and its relation to race, poverty, or social class in
> peer-reviewed scientific journals in his entire 36-year academic career.
> Richard Herrnstein's actual area of expertise is the experimental analysis
> of decision making in pigeons and rats, and he never studied the genetic
> basis of any behavior in those laboratory animals.
> (end)
>
> Regarding Charles Murray, Dorfman writes:
> The second author of The Bell Curve, Charles Murray, has a doctorate in
> political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is
> currently a Bradley Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, a
> conservative research group in Washington, DC. Murray often publishes his
> research and theories in The Public Interest (e.g., Murray, 1994), a
> neoconservative magazine edited by Irving Kristol, also a fellow of the
> American Enterprise Institute and sometimes considered the founding father
> of neoconservatism (Atlas, 1995).
>
> In an article recently published in The Public Interest, Murray listed the
> first priority of his political agenda: "And so I want to end welfare"
> (1994, p. 18). Inasmuch as the media sometimes refer to The Bell Curve as
> Murray's book, perhaps the book represents Murray's summing up of a body of
> objective scholarly research that he had published in scientific journals on
> the genetic basis of IQ and poverty. But like his coauthor Richard
> Herrnstein, Murray has never conducted or published any research in
> scientific journals on the genetic basis of IQ and poverty in his entire
> career.
> (end)
>
> I thought some background information on the co-authors would be helpful.
>
> The following paragraph I think sums up the point Murray and Herrnstein's
> were trying to make with their book.
>
> Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr. in his review of the book wrote:
> The notion of a meritocracy is not, in itself, an affront to American
> sensibilities. Social scientists have carefully documented that social
> mobility does occur from one generation to the next and that cognitive
> ability is a major factor in determining whether an individual will achieve
> greater or lesser social status than did his or her parents (Waller, 1971).
> When each generation resorts in this way, the elements of fairness and
> opportunity are preserved.
>
> If, however, as The Bell Curve asserts, the heritability of IQ is quite high
> and there is a strong tendency for those similar in ability to marry, there
> will be less regression toward the mean in the cognitive ability of children
> of the intellectually talented and, therefore, less intergenerational
> reassortment.
>
> Under these circumstances a meritocracy begins to look like an aristocracy,
> a perception that is strongly reinforced when the intellectual elite
> segregate themselves from the rest of society by living in separate
> neighborhoods, sending their children to private schools, and supporting
> social institutions that cater to their own unique interests.
>
> The authors do argue that general cognitive ability (i.e., "g") is a major
> determiner of social status and that variance in general mental ability is
> largely attributable to genetic factors--propositions that are certainly
> endorsed by many experts in the field. The book explicitly disclaims,
> however, that general mental ability is the only determinant of social
> status, or that g is the sum total of an individual's social worth.
> (end)
>
> This is strong stuff! I will requote the following:
> Under these circumstances a meritocracy begins to look like an aristocracy,
> a perception that is strongly reinforced when the intellectual elite
> segregate themselves from the rest of society by living in separate
> neighborhoods, etc.
> (end)
These guys Herrnstein and Murray remind me of Spencer and another guy with a
funny little mustache. I can hear jacket booted goose steppers already! ;) Zieg
Hiel Herr-nstein.
James
-- "Quod de futuris non est determinata omnino veritas" NOSTRADAMUS 15TH Century
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