Word: murrayism
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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...
While that may be a peculiar position for an author whose book is all about group identities, stranger still is his premise that the early '60s were a time when race was unimportant to the people who controlled schools and jobs, to say nothing of lunch counters. Murray frets that the cognitive elite is out of touch with ordinary realities. There are times when he seems to be a good example of that himself. He says he wants his book to be remembered for promoting such values as individualism. It looks as if it is likely to be remembered...