Word: herrnsteins
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...summary, Herrnstein has not shown that IQ measures intelligence. Even assuming that IQ does measure intelligence, he has not shown that IQ is inherited. And even assuming that IQ is an inherited measure of intelligence, he has not shown that success depends upon high IQ. Thus, he has not given the slightest credence to his conclusion that social standing is based on inherited differences in intelligence...
Given such a shoddy excuse for scholarship, it is understandable that this incompetent amateur shrinks from publication in professional journals and refuses "ever again" to discuss his theory in public. Herrnstein has repeatedly denied social policy implications drawn from his description of a "less endowed" lower class. He reasserts in Commentary that any criticism is a misrepresentation: "Not many of my critics seemed to have read it ['IQ']. Perhaps not many people at all read it; it was, after all, rather long and tough going in spots. There seemed, in fact, to be a pattern: Those who gave clear signs...
...Commentary he is more straightforward. On race: "We do not know why blacks bunch toward the lower end of the social scale, or, for that matter, why Jews bunch toward the top." But even acknowledging the complications of "nongenetic" factors, Herrnstein "calls attention" to the "genetic spine running through the social class continuum, giving it a rigidity that few social theorists, let alone ordinary laymen, recognize...
...Although Herrnstein's scientific justification and syllogism have been seriously questioned, he gives no new evidence nor does he refute his critics. Instead, he slanders them: "I suspected that many liberal social scientists, wedded to environmantalism, were not keen for open exchange in any event..." Quite arrogant, since he has refused public debate on the question and has yet to respond to criticism of his data...
...action last year was distortion and threat, says Herrnstein. This is not true. The assertion that critics did not read "IQ" is false. SDS sold over 2000 copies on campus and encouraged people to read it. He claims that SDS created an atmosphere of intimidation in Soc Sci 15. Herrnstein's refusal after the first lecture to allow any questions except those of clarification in fact prevented open discussion. Finally, Herrnstein says the campaign was the effort of ten or twelve who succeeded in convicing others of their distortion. Hundreds across the country signed statements deploring his racism...