An Intelligent Idea or Absurd Argument?
Whether it is by making mistakes, by observing others, or repeating a process over again, it is human nature to learn. In their book The Bell Curve, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray disagree and hold the position that human intelligence is inborn and measurable by IQ, which In turn shows how much success a single individual will have in life. The Bell Curve supports a class system, arguing that the intelligent are likely to become ever more dominant and prosperous, while the unintelligent are falling further and further behind. In addition, African-Americans are overrepresented as unintelligent. The book argues that anything the government may do to improve the economic status of poor people is going …show more content…
Chabris is an example of a well composed article that passionately yet professionally goes against The Bell Curve. Chabris presents Gould’s argument as being that “the craniometrics of the 19th century, and later intelligence researchers as well, operated from racist assumptions” and that their findings should therefore “be ignored” and goes on to comment that the data and claims are, “absurd and malicious” (Chabris). Chabris asserts that this is a waste of what could be “useful science” that should not be discounted because of the researchers’ predispositions. He proceeds to analyze the general intelligence debate and rather cleverly points out that each side is operating with different definitions of intelligence. The refreshing reasonableness of Chabris’ analysis causes one to gain credibility for his argument. Then he makes the statement “even brain size…has been found with modern imaging to correlate with IQ” and the audience is thrown into a different direction. Because of one sentence, Chabris loses credibility to his audience, causing them to turn a critical eye on his well phrased, but questionable, …show more content…
According to Scott, the authors argue that the population is broken into two categories, the quality and the quantity. much like a caste system murray and herrnstein claim that those born into poor families will stay poor and no amount of education will help them rise out of the gutter of poverty. This group, becomes helpless and, will allow those of higher intelligence to lead the community as they themselves are incapable of achieving such accomplishments. With this recreation of natural selection comes an additional claim, blacks have lower IQ than whites, therefore proving them less intelligent and innately inferior. Scott argues that it is unacceptable to make such claims based on the questionable number that is IQ, especially when it is a single test of many which lacks proper data, analysis, and trials, labeling blacks forever inferior to whites. By defining IQ as intelligence, and intelligence as hereditary, those with low IQs are not only destined to remain at the bottom but so are all their descendents. Through presenting the simple implications of The Bell Curve’s assertions, Scott exposes the biased racism of the whole textbook while exposing audiences to realistic
Whether it is by making mistakes, by observing others, or repeating a process over again, it is human nature to learn. In their book The Bell Curve, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray disagree and hold the position that human intelligence is inborn and measurable by IQ, which In turn shows how much success a single individual will have in life. The Bell Curve supports a class system, arguing that the intelligent are likely to become ever more dominant and prosperous, while the unintelligent are falling further and further behind. In addition, African-Americans are overrepresented as unintelligent. The book argues that anything the government may do to improve the economic status of poor people is going …show more content…
Chabris is an example of a well composed article that passionately yet professionally goes against The Bell Curve. Chabris presents Gould’s argument as being that “the craniometrics of the 19th century, and later intelligence researchers as well, operated from racist assumptions” and that their findings should therefore “be ignored” and goes on to comment that the data and claims are, “absurd and malicious” (Chabris). Chabris asserts that this is a waste of what could be “useful science” that should not be discounted because of the researchers’ predispositions. He proceeds to analyze the general intelligence debate and rather cleverly points out that each side is operating with different definitions of intelligence. The refreshing reasonableness of Chabris’ analysis causes one to gain credibility for his argument. Then he makes the statement “even brain size…has been found with modern imaging to correlate with IQ” and the audience is thrown into a different direction. Because of one sentence, Chabris loses credibility to his audience, causing them to turn a critical eye on his well phrased, but questionable, …show more content…
According to Scott, the authors argue that the population is broken into two categories, the quality and the quantity. much like a caste system murray and herrnstein claim that those born into poor families will stay poor and no amount of education will help them rise out of the gutter of poverty. This group, becomes helpless and, will allow those of higher intelligence to lead the community as they themselves are incapable of achieving such accomplishments. With this recreation of natural selection comes an additional claim, blacks have lower IQ than whites, therefore proving them less intelligent and innately inferior. Scott argues that it is unacceptable to make such claims based on the questionable number that is IQ, especially when it is a single test of many which lacks proper data, analysis, and trials, labeling blacks forever inferior to whites. By defining IQ as intelligence, and intelligence as hereditary, those with low IQs are not only destined to remain at the bottom but so are all their descendents. Through presenting the simple implications of The Bell Curve’s assertions, Scott exposes the biased racism of the whole textbook while exposing audiences to realistic