Post by eufrenio on Dec 8, 2005 18:50:46 GMT -5
Wanted: More Race Realism, Less Moralistic Fallacy
By J. Philippe Rushton
www.vdare.com/misc/051207_rushton_fallacy.htm
www.vdare.com/misc/051207_rushton_fallacy.htm
A more scholarly version of the above here:
www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/PPPL2.pdf
By J. Philippe Rushton
www.vdare.com/misc/051207_rushton_fallacy.htm
The term "moralistic fallacy" was coined by Harvard University microbiologist Bernard Davis after calls for ethical guidelines to control the study what could allegedly become "dangerous knowledge"…such as the genetic basis of IQ.
For well over a generation, the study of the genetic and racial aspects of I.Q. has given rise to the best examples we have of the moralistic fallacy in action. Happily, under the sheer weight of evidence, there are now signs this anti-intellectual and unscientific prohibition is breaking down, at least in the academic world.
Despite repeated claims to the contrary, there has been no narrowing of the 15- to 18-point average IQ difference between Blacks and Whites (1.1 standard deviations). The differences are as large today as when first measured nearly 100 years ago. These differences, and the associated gaps in living standards, education levels etc., are rooted in factors that are largely heritable, not cultural. IQ differences are attributable more to differences in brain size than to racism, stereotype threat, item selection on tests, and all the other suggestions given by the commentators. It is time to meet reality. It is time to stop committing the "moralistic fallacy" that good science must conform to approved outcomes. (...)
Discussing this evidence with those who, for whatever reason, refuse to consider the behavioral genetic or evolutionary aspect of race and intelligence is little more than arguing past one another.
But the harsh fact is that the more we remove environmental disadvantages, improving everybody’s intellectual performance, the greater will be the relative influence of genetic factors.
Equal opportunity will result in unequal outcomes—within families, between families, and between population groups.
Perhaps the fact that we have learned to live with the first, and to a lesser degree the second, offers some hope we can learn to do so for the third.
For well over a generation, the study of the genetic and racial aspects of I.Q. has given rise to the best examples we have of the moralistic fallacy in action. Happily, under the sheer weight of evidence, there are now signs this anti-intellectual and unscientific prohibition is breaking down, at least in the academic world.
Despite repeated claims to the contrary, there has been no narrowing of the 15- to 18-point average IQ difference between Blacks and Whites (1.1 standard deviations). The differences are as large today as when first measured nearly 100 years ago. These differences, and the associated gaps in living standards, education levels etc., are rooted in factors that are largely heritable, not cultural. IQ differences are attributable more to differences in brain size than to racism, stereotype threat, item selection on tests, and all the other suggestions given by the commentators. It is time to meet reality. It is time to stop committing the "moralistic fallacy" that good science must conform to approved outcomes. (...)
Discussing this evidence with those who, for whatever reason, refuse to consider the behavioral genetic or evolutionary aspect of race and intelligence is little more than arguing past one another.
But the harsh fact is that the more we remove environmental disadvantages, improving everybody’s intellectual performance, the greater will be the relative influence of genetic factors.
Equal opportunity will result in unequal outcomes—within families, between families, and between population groups.
Perhaps the fact that we have learned to live with the first, and to a lesser degree the second, offers some hope we can learn to do so for the third.
www.vdare.com/misc/051207_rushton_fallacy.htm
A more scholarly version of the above here:
www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/PPPL2.pdf
