Word: murrayism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With the publication of their new book, The Bell Curve, Charles Murray '65, a fellow at a prominent conservative think tank, and the late Richard Herrnstein, Pierce professor of psychology, have added a new dimension to the current conversations on race and intelligence...
...Murray and Herrnstein write, "It is now beyond much technical dispute that there is such a thing as a general factor of cognitive ability on which human beings differ and that this general factor is measured reasonably by a variety of standardized tests, best of all IQ [Intelligence Quotient] tests." The authors document the disparity between mean Black and mean white IQ scores--a fact easily proved by experimentation. And on the strength of the above-cited assumption, they allege that Blacks have less intrinsic aptitude or ability...
...tests sets this work apart from others which seek only to compare different races' attainments. According to Murray and Herrnstein, the Intelligence Quotient measures people's "cognitive ability," in a word, smarts. The authors attempt to interpret something we all know--that some racial groups are more academically and socioeconomically successful than others--as a sign that some racial groups are dumber than others. In short, a theory of inequality rooted in environmental differences (which can be changed) is replaced with one rooted in genetics...
Some early research by Jeffrey Rosen, Charles Lane and Michael Lind has cast doubt on the objectivity of many of the studies cited in The Bell Curve. For example, cited by Murray and Herrnstein are two eugenicists who have advocated the sterilization of "anti-socials...
Amusing though it may be, exposing some of Herrnstein's and Murray's sources is not enough to discredit the entire book. Rather, The Bell Curve has achieved one of its stated goals, which is to bring private speculation on a much whispered-about topic into the public sphere of discussion. Casting aspersions on the authors is not enough--apologists could reasonably label the opinions of liberals like me tendentious, simply because I find the book's conclusion deeply offensive...