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Pinker, Round Two

In Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, Steven Pinker responds to my description of him as occupying the  “lonely ice floe of IQ fundamentalism”:

What Malcolm Gladwell calls a “lonely ice floe” is what psychologists call “the mainstream.” In a 1997 editorial in the journal Intelligence, 52 signatories wrote, “I.Q. is strongly related, probably more so than any other single measurable human trait, to many important educational, occupational, economic and social outcomes.” Similar conclusions were affirmed in a unanimous blue-ribbon report by the American Psychological Association. . .

A few things here are worth mentioning:

First, the editorial in question made a number of other arguments that, I think, most observers would agree fall on one end of the nature-nurture continuum: that all IQ tests measure the same thing, that heredity is more important than environment in determining it, that group differences are relatively unaffected by schooling or socioeconomic factors. It also said that the IQs of different races cluster at different points, with the average IQ of blacks falling about a standard deviation lower than that of whites, and that these differences show no sign of converging over time.

Second, two thirds of the editorial board of the journal Intelligence declined to sign the statement.

Third, the statement originally appeared on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal in 1994, explicitly in defense of “The Bell Curve,” a book whose supporters are typically quite happy to call one of the most controversial books of the past 25 years.

Fourth, fifteen of 52 signatories to the Wall Street Journal statement have had their research supported by the Pioneer Fund. For those who have not heard about the Pioneer Fund, here is a brief description of its history from “The Pioneer Fund: Bankrolling the Professors of Hate,” by the historian Adam Miller:

In 1937 the Pioneer Fund was founded by Wicklife Draper, whose New England textile fortune started the fund's endowment and helps finance it today. Harry Laughlin, the first president of the fund, was a well-known eugenicist who in 1924 was instrumental in pushing through legislation blocking U.S. Entry to Jews fleeing pograms in Russia. Before Congress he testified that IQ data proved that 83 percent of Jewish immigrants were born feeble-minded and therefore were a threat to the nation's economy and genetic makeup. Laughlin subsequently lobbied to keep those barriers in place, successfully cutting off sanctuary for Jews seeking refuge from the Third Reich.

    In 1922, Laughlin also wrote the Model Eugenical Sterilization Law which was adopted in one form or another by 30 states and resulted in the forced sterilization of tens of thousands of people in the United States.

    Among the fifteen Pioneer Fund-sponsored signatories were Arthur R. Jensen (who has cited the heritability of IQ to argue against interventions to boost academic performance of minorities), J. Philippe Rushton (who, since 2002, has been the president of the Pioneer Fund, and who has argued that the size of what he terms the “Negroid brain” is inversely related to that of the Negroid penis); Rushton's colleague Douglas Jackson (best known for arguing that men are significantly more intelligent than woman), and Seymour Itzkoff (a eugenicist who holds that blacks and whites have such distinct evolutionary histories as to belong to different subspecies).

Fifth, the APA’s own report on the subject,“Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns,” which Pinker suggests is in sympathy with his position, was largely directed against IQ fundamentalism.  For example, it noted that IQ results correlated well with total years of education—in part because high scorers receive encouragement, and are placed in "college preparatory" classes where their peers provide encouragement, too. The amount of education someone receives then itself has an effect on social status. ("In summary, intelligence test scores predict a wide range of social outcomes with varying degrees of success. Correlations are highest for educational achievement, where they account for about a quarter of the variance.") The paper points out that one reason intelligence scores predict occupational level is that "admission to many professions depends on test scores in the first place," and also explores the evidence that "workplaces may affect the intelligence of those who work in them." It delves into the Flynn effect, and the various possible explanations for it; and suggests that what little evidence is available "fails to support the genetic hypothesis" for the black/white differential in psychometric scores.

I don’t mean to suggest that Professor Pinker agrees with the more eccentric positions of the some of the 52 signatories. (Though the Pioneer Fund website does describe one of his books as a “must read”; the New Yorker, where I work, was less generous). The fact that ideas are sometimes supported by people with unsavory connections does not make them invalid. An ice floe is not necessarily a bad place to be. It’s just that if you are plainly floating on one, it doesn’t make much sense to insist that you are standing on solid ground.

December 03, 2009 |

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バーバリーマフラー

バーバリーマフラー
会談では３次補正予算案と復興財源確保法案など関連法案について今月中をめどに成立させるよう３党が協力することも確認した。バーバリーハンドバッグ
３党協議では自民党が反対するたばこ増税が残る主な課題となるが、この日の会談では、たばこ税についても３党の税調会長レベルで細部を詰める協議を急ぐことで合意した。

　バーバリー アウトレット償還期間を巡っては、民主党が政府案の１０年を１５年に延ばす方針を提示したが、公明党が１５～２０年を主張したのに対し、自民党が一層の延長を求めていた。しかし、谷垣氏は５日に償還期間３０年程度を検討する意向を表明。
バーバリーマフラー民主党がさらに譲歩したことで、これ以上反対すれば東日本大震災の復興復旧を遅らせたという批判を受ける懸念もあることから、受け入れた。

　バーバリー財布輿石氏は２５年を提案した理由について記者団に、「成立するめどがないものを提案しても仕方がない」と語った。
バーバリー アウトレットまた、民主党幹部は「２５年ぐらいまでは現役世代での負担と言えるし、単年度の負担も野党の主張通りに薄くできる」と説明した

Posted by: バーバリーマフラー | November 07, 2011 at 08:13 PM

バーバリーマフラー

バーバリーマフラー
政府民主党は7日、東日本大震災の復興財源に充てる復興債の償還期間を政府案の10年から25年に延長する方針を決め、自民、公明両党との3党幹事長会談で提案した。バーバリーハンドバッグ
自公両党は受け入れる考えで、8日に正式回答する。償還期間の問題が決着し、2011年度第3次補正予算案に関する修正協議の焦点は、復興債の償還財源として政府案に盛り込まれたたばこ税増税の扱いに移る。バーバリー アウトレット3次補正と復興財源確保法案は月内の成立が確実となった。
　
バーバリーマフラー野田佳彦首相は7日夕、首相官邸に民主党の前原誠司政調会長を呼び、復興債の償還期間を25年に延長する考えを伝えた上で、「これ以上、妥協するつもりはない」と取りまとめを指示した。
　バーバリー財布この後の幹事長会談で民主党の輿石東氏は、償還期間延長に加えて、3党税調会長による財確法案など関連法案の修正協議を行うことを提案。3幹事長は3次補正と関連法案について、月内をめどに成立させるよう協力することを確認した。
　
バーバリー アウトレット幹事長会談を受け、自民党は党本部で谷垣禎一総裁と大島理森副総裁、石原伸晃幹事長が対応を協議、25年への延長を受け入れる方針を決めた。

Posted by: バーバリーマフラー | November 07, 2011 at 08:14 PM

DanDy

Blah Blah Blah Pinker. You do need to think more. just because IQ is strongly related to social incomes and outcomes... does not mean it exists as a genetic fact. RELATED. ASSOCIATED. TIED. Theres something called the effect of one's upbringing. and racism. you goofball get off the high horse & you'll win.

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