The Mismeasure of Man: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Gouldmismeasure.jpg|200px|thumb|First edition (1981) of ''The Mismeasure of |
[[Image:Gouldmismeasure.jpg|200px|thumb|First edition (1981) of ''The Mismeasure of Cocks'']] |
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When publshed in 1981, The Mismeasure of Cocks was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the raging faggotry to those who would classify cocks, rank them according to their supposed gifts and genetic limits. |
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'''''The Mismeasure of Man''''' is a [[controversial book|controversial]] [[1981]] book written by the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] [[paleontology|paleontologist]] [[Stephen Jay Gould]] ([[1941]]-[[2002]]). The book is a [[History of science|history]] and critique of the methods and motivations underlying [[biological determinism]], the belief that "the social and economic differences between human groups—primarily [[race]]s, [[Social class|classes]], and [[Sexism|sexes]]—arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that [[society]], in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology."<ref>Stephen Jay Gould, ''The Mismeasure of Man''. W.W. Norton & Co., 1981, p. 20.</ref> |
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And yet the idea of innate limits- of the prostate as desinty- fucks hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Cock Curve, whose arguements are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined by Stephen Gay Jew'd. In this edition Dr. Jew'd has written a flaming new introduction telling how and why he wrote the gayness and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy of cock-pumping right through The Cock Curve. Further, he has added five cum-loads, in a seperate section at the asshole, on questions of The Cock Curve in particular and on dongs, balls, and intensive faggotry in general. These additions strengthen the claim of this book to be "a major contribution toward deflating NON-CRAZY-ASS MARXIST HORSESHIT THAT PERMEATES THROUGH EVERYTHING I SPEW OUT OF MY FILTHY JEWHOLE" of our present gaping urethras. |
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The book also attempts to critique the principal theme of biological determinism, that "worth can be assigned to individuals and groups by ''[[Intelligence quotient|measuring intelligence as a single quantity]]''." Gould discusses two prominent techniques used to measure such a quantity, [[craniometry]] and [[psychological testing]]. According to Gould these methods suffer from "two deep fallacies." The first fallacy is of ''[[reification]]'', that is, "our tendency to convert abstract concepts into entities." These entities include [[Intelligence quotient|IQ]] (the intelligence quotient) and [[General intelligence factor|g]] (the general intelligence factor), which have been the cornerstone of much intelligence research. The second fallacy is one of ''ranking'', or our "propensity for ordering complex variation as a gradual ascending scale." |
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''The Mismeasure of Man'' [[Scientific skepticism|skeptically investigates]] "the abstraction of intelligence as a single entity, its location within the brain, its quantification as one number for each individual, and the use of these numbers to rank people in a single series of worthiness, invariably to find that oppressed and disadvantaged groups—races, classes, or sexes—are innately inferior and deserve their status."<ref>''ibid''. pp. 24–25.</ref> |
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The book's second edition ([[1996]]) has been revised and challenges the arguments of [[Richard Herrnstein]] and [[Charles Murray|Charles Murray's]] ''[[The Bell Curve]]'', which had generated much controversy. |
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==Summary of contents== |
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[[Image:Mismeasure.png|200px|left|thumb|Cover of the 1996 printing of ''The Mismeasure of Man'']] |
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===Historical bias in biological sociology=== |
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The first parts of the book are devoted to a critical analysis of early works on a supposed biologically inherited basis for intelligence, such as [[craniometry]], the measurement of skull volume and its relation to intellectual faculties. Gould argues that much of this research was based more on prejudice than scientific rigor, demonstrating how in several occasions researchers such as [[Samuel George Morton]], [[Louis Agassiz]], and [[Paul Broca]] committed the fallacy of using their expected conclusions as part of their reasoning. The book contains a complete re-working of Morton's original data of endocranial volume, asserting that the original results were based on biases and manipulations, both by the selection of data and by Morton physically manipulating his results. While Gould never actually examined Morton's skull collection himself, subsequent investigations found Morton's original data to be more accurate than Gould describes. Gould claims however that when these purported biases are accounted for, the original hypothesis—an ordering in skull size ranging from Blacks through Mongols to Whites—is not supported in any way by the data. J.Michael conducted the same experiments and found that Gould had exaggerated some of his conclusions. However, there were some discrepancies in Morton's calculations as well. As of now, there are no definitive answers. This issue remains to be resolved and is one of the most contested portions of the book. |
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===Claims of bias and falsification=== |
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The following chapters present a historical evaluation of the concept of [[IQ]] and of the ''[[General intelligence factor|g factor]]'', which are measures of intelligence used by psychologists. Gould argues that most race-related psychological studies have been heavily biased by the belief that human behavior is best explained by [[heredity]]. Gould notes that the often cited [[twin study|twin studies]] by [[Cyril Burt]] on the genetic heritability of intelligence used falsified data. According to L. S. Hearnshaw (1979), fraud had also been found in Burt's studies in kinship correlations in [[IQ]], and declining levels of intelligence in Britain. Burt had also attempted to declare himself the father of "[[factor analysis]]," rather than his predecessor and mentor [[Charles Spearman]] (who invented the technique in [[1904]]).<!-- This is a very weak section and needs to be improved. --> |
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===Statistical correlation and heritability=== |
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Gould devotes a large part of the book to an analysis of [[statistical correlation]], which is used by psychologists to assert the validity of IQ tests and the heritability of intelligence. For example, to claim that an [[IQ test]] measures [[General intelligence factor]] relies on the fact that the answers to various questions correlate highly, the heritability of ''g'' requires that the scores of respondents who are closely related exhibit higher correlation than those of distant relations. To criticise such claims Gould points out that correlation is not the same as cause. As he puts it, measures of the changes, over time, in "my age, the population of [[Mexico]], the price of [[Swiss cheese]], my pet turtle's weight, and the average distance between [[galaxy|galaxies]]" have a high positive correlation, but that does not mean that Stephen Jay Gould's age goes up ''because'' the population of Mexico goes up. Second, and more specifically, a high positive correlation between parent and child IQ can be taken as either evidence that IQ is genetically inherited or that IQ is inherited through social and environmental factors. Since the same data can be used to argue either side of the case, the data in and of itself is not useful. |
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Furthermore, Gould argues that even if it were demonstrated that IQ is highly genetically heritable within a group, this tells nothing about the causes of IQ differences between groups or whether those differences can be changed by environment. Gould gives the example of height, which is known to be determined mostly through genes within socioeconomic groups, but group differences in height may be due to nutrition as well as genes. [[Richard Lewontin]], a colleague of Gould's, is well-known for emphasizing this argument as it pertains to IQ testing. |
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According to Gould, a good example of the confusion of heritability is found in the statement “If all environments were to become equal for everyone, heritability would rise to 100% because all remaining differences in IQ would necessarily be genetic in origin.”<ref>Linda Gottfredson, ''Mainstream Science on Intelligence'', Ingelligence <!-- Clean me up! --></ref> He says that this claim is at best misleading and at worst, false. First, it is very hard to conceive of a world in which everyone grows up in the exact same environment; the very fact that people are spatially and temporally dispersed means that no one can be in exactly the same environment, for example, a husband and wife may share a house, but they do not live in identical environments because each is married to a different person. <!-- is this Gould's own example? I forget... Otherwise it needs to go. --> Second, even if people grew up in exactly the same environment, not all differences would be genetic in origin. This is because embryonic development involves chance molecular events and random cellular movements that alter the effects of genes. |
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Gould argues that heritability is not a measure of phenotypic differences between groups, but rather differences between genotype and phenotype within a population. Even within a group, if all members of the group grow up in exactly the same environment, it does not mean that heritability is 100%. All Americans (or New Yorkers, or upper-class New Yorkers – one may define the population in question as narrowly as one likes) may eat exactly the same food, but their adult height will still be a result of both genetics and nutrition. In short, heritability is almost never 100%, and heritability tells us nothing about genetic differences between groups. This is true for height, which has a high degree of heritability; it is all the more true for intelligence. This is true for other reasons besides ones involving heritability, as Gould goes on to discuss. |
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Gould's most profound criticism is his rejection of the very thing that IQ is meant to measure, "general intelligence" (or ''g''). IQ tests, he points out, ask many different kinds of questions. Responses to different kinds of questions tend to form clusters. In other words, different kinds of questions can be given different scores – which suggests that an IQ test is really a combination of a number of different tests that test a number of different things. Gould claims that proponents of IQ tests assume that there is such a thing as general intelligence, and analyze the data so as to produce one number, which they then claim is a measure of general intelligence. Gould argues that this one number (and therefore, the implication that there is a real thing called "general intelligence" that this number measures) is in fact an artifact of the statistical operations psychologists apply to the raw data. He argues that one can analyze the same data more effectively and end up with a number of different scores (that are as or more valid, meaning they measure something) rather than one score. |
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Finally, Gould points out that he is not opposed to the notion of "biological variability" which is the premise that heredity influences intelligence. Instead, he does criticize the notion of "biological determinism" which is the idea that genes determine destiny and there is nothing we can or should do about this. |
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==Reception== |
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{{wikiquote}} |
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''The Mismeasure of Man'' has won several awards, including the [[National Book Critics Circle]] Award for nonfiction in [[1981]] and the Outstanding Book Award from the [[American Educational Research Association]] in [[1983]]. An Italian translation won the Iglesias Prize in [[1991]]. |
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===Praise=== |
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[[Leon J. Kamin]], an [[United States|American]] [[psychology|psychologist]] at [[Princeton University]], writes that Gould's work "effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined" the arguments later presented in ''The Bell Curve''. He praises the additions to the book's [[1996]] edition, writing that they "strengthen the claim of this book to be 'a major contribution toward deflating pseudobiological "explanations" of our present social woes.'" |
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[[Christopher Lehmann-Haupt]] stresses Gould's critique of [[factor analysis]], saying the book "demonstrates persuasively how factor analysis led to the cardinal error in reasoning of confusing correlation with cause, or, to put it another way, of attributing false concreteness to the abstract." He considers the critique more important than Gould's attempts to refute psychologists such as [[Arthur Jensen]], "for it is far more absorbing to have our powers of reason challenged than it is to have our social consciences shaken."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/09/home/gould-mismeasure.html "Books Of The Times"] ''The New York Times'', Section C; Page 29.</ref> |
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The ''Saturday Review'', a British journal, praises the book as a "fascinating historical study of scientific racism" that |
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"illustrate[s] both the logical inconsistencies of the theories and the prejudicially motivated, albeit unintentional, misuse of data in each case." |
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A review in the ''Sunday Times'', another British publication, speaks favorably of the book, suggesting Gould "shifts the argument from a sterile contest between environmentalists and hereditarians and turns it into an argument between those who are impressed with what our biology ''stops'' us doing and those who are impressed with what it ''allows'' us to do." |
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[[Richard York]] and [[Brett Clark]] of the US ''Monthly Review'' praise Gould's narrow focus: "Rather than attempt a grand critique of all 'scientific' efforts aimed at justifying social inequalities, Gould performs a well-reasoned assessment of the errors underlying a specific set of theories and empirical claims."[http://www.monthlyreview.org/0206yorkclark.htm] |
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===Criticisms=== |
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''The Mismeasure of Man'' has been highly controversial in some quarters, particularly among psychologists. The popular and literary press almost universally praised the book, while numerous reviews in technical journals have been critical. This contrast can be misleading, since some reviews in both were authored by professional scientists; for example, [[Richard Lewontin]], well-known for his long-standing support for similar points of view, reviewed the work in ''The New York Review of Books'' and was highly enthusiastic. |
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Initial reviews in scientific journals, such as ''Science'' (Samelson, 1982), ''Nature'', and ''Science '82'', tended to be critical on a number of counts. Bernard Davis claimed that a laudatory review by Morrison appeared in ''Scientific American'' because that joumal's editorial staff had "long seen the study of the genetics of intelligence as a threat to social justice" <ref>(Davis, 1983, p. 45).</ref> Among many psychologists, the reaction has been largely negative. [[Hans Eysenck]]'s<ref>Hans Eysenck and Stephen Jay Gould debated the issue in an exchange of letters to ''The New York Review of Books''. See "Jensen and Bias: An Exchange" ''NYRB'' (October 23, 1980) and [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/7186 "What is Intelligence"] ''NYRB'' (December 18, 1980).</ref> review called the book "a paleontologist's distorted view of what psychologists think, untutored in even the most elementary facts of the science." |
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Numerous critics have accused Gould of selective reporting, distorting the viewpoints of scientists, and letting his viewpoints be influenced by political and ethical biases; they allege that many of Gould's claims about the validity of intelligence measures, such as [[IQ]], contradict mainstream [[psychology]]. |
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*[[Bernard Davis]] ([[1916]]–[[1994]]), former professor at the Harvard Medical School, and former head of the Center for Human Genetics, accuses him of setting up straw man arguments, incorrectly defining key terms (notably "reification"), choosing data in a "highly selective" manner, and in general being motivated more by political concerns than scientific ones. His review can be found [http://www.cpsimoes.net/artigos/art_davis.html here]. |
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*David J. Bartholomew, Emeritus Professor of [[Statistics]], [[London School of Economics]], and former president of the [[Royal Statistical Society]], states in his book ''Measuring Intelligence, Facts and Fallacies'', (University Press, Cambridge, 2004) that Gould erred in his use of factor analysis (p. 73) and irrelevantly focusing on the issue of reification and ignoring scientific consensus on the existence of the "g" factor of intelligence (p. 145-46). |
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*[[Charles Murray]] in an interview in ''[[The Skeptics Society|Skeptic magazine]]'', claimed that Gould misrepresented his views.[http://web.archive.org/web/20041013225203/www.skeptic.com/archives24.html] |
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*[[Arthur Jensen]], an educational psychologist, in a paper titled ''The Debunking of Scientific Fossils and Straw Persons'' available [http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/jensen-gould-fossils here], also accused Gould of using straw man arguments, misrepresenting other scientists and operating from a political agenda. |
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*In an article written for the April 1982 edition of ''Nature'', Steve Blinkhorn, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at [[University of Hertfordshire|Hatfield Polytechnic]], also accuses him of selectively juxtaposing data in order to further a political agenda.<ref>Blinkhorn, Steve (1982) [http://www.skepticfiles.org/evolut/mismeasr.htm "What Skulduggery?"] ''NATURE''. April 1982.</ref> |
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*[[J. Philippe Rushton]], head of the [[Pioneer Fund]], which funds research towards "the scientific study of heredity and human differences," accused Gould of "scholarly malfeasance" for misrepresenting or ignoring relevant scientific research, and attacking [[Straw man|dead arguments and methods]].<ref>Rushton, J. P. (1997) [http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/Gould.pdf "Race, Intelligence, And The Brain: The Errors and Omissions Of The 'Revised' Edition of S.J. Gould's ''The Mismeasure of Man''"] ''Personality and Individual Differences''. 23: 169-180.</ref> |
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*Finally, many of Gould's positions conflict with conclusions reached by the [[American Psychological Association]], whose Board of Scientific Affairs has published a report finding that IQ scores do in fact have high predictive validity for certain individual differences.[http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/apa_01.html] |
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{{seealso|intelligence testing}} |
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==References== |
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<references/> |
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== Further reading == |
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* {{cite book|title=Why Gould Was Wrong|author=Nils K. Oeijord|date=2003|publisher=iUniverse|id=ISBN 0595301568}} |
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* {{cite journal|title=Blumenbach's Racial Geometry|author=Thomas Junker|journal=Isis|volume=89|issue=3|date=September 1998|pages=498–501|doi=10.1086/384075|url=http://www.thomas-junker-geschichtederbiologie.de/13760/home.html}} |
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* {{cite journal|title=Still Mismeasuring Man|journal=Skeptic|volume=5|issue=1|date=1997|pages=84}} |
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* {{cite journal|title="The Mismeasure of Man."|author=Allan Janik|journal=Ethics|volume=94|issue=1|date=October 1983|pages=153–155}} |
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* {{cite journal|title=Intelligence and Some of Its Testers|author=Franz Samelson|journal=Science|volume=215|issue=4533|date=[[1982-02-05]]|pages=656–657}} |
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* {{cite journal|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Summaries/V73I2P68-1.htm|title="The Mismeasure of Man"|author=Diane Ravitch|journal=Commentary|volume=73|issue=2|date=February 1982}} |
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==External links== |
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===Criticism=== |
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*[http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~reingold/courses/intelligence/cache/carroll-gould.html "Reflections on Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man"] - by [[John B. Carroll]] |
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*[http://www.eugenics.net/papers/jprnr.html "The Mismeasures of Gould"] - by Philippe Rushton |
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*[http://www.debunker.com/texts/jensen.html "The Debunking of Scientific Fossils and Straw Persons"] by [[Arthur Jensen]] - |
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*[http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/Gould.pdf "Race, Intelligence, and the Brain"] (PDF) by [[J. Philippe Rushton]] |
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*[http://www.cpsimoes.net/artigos/art_davis.html "Neo-Lysenkoism, IQ and the press"] by [[Bernard Davis]] |
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*[http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2006/09/some-notes-on-g-and-factor-analysis.php "Some notes on g and factor analysis: A rebuttal of The Mismeasure of Man"] - Darth Quixote, at [http://www.gnxp.com/ Gene Expression] |
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===Praise=== |
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*[http://www.monthlyreview.org/0206yorkclark.htm "Debunking as Positive Science"] by Richard York and Brett Clark |
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*[http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi429.htm "Engines of Our Ingenuity"] by John H. Lienhard |
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*[http://pep-web.org/document.php?id=PAQ.053.0286A "The Mismeasure of Man"] by Martin A. Silverman and Ilene Silverman |
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*[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-8075(19820205)3%3A215%3A4533%3C656%3AIASOIT%3E2.0.CO;2-Z "Intelligence and Some of its Testers"] by Franz Samelson |
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*[http://educ.queensu.ca/~science/main/profdev/books/PDBRKM.htm "Review of ''The Mismeasure of Man''"] by Karen Murphy. |
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*[http://nootropics.com/intelligence/mismeasure.html "Steven Jay Gould on Intelligence"] by K. B. Korb |
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{{SJGould}} |
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[[Category:1981 books|Mismeasure of Man, The]] |
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[[Category:Biology books|Mismeasure of Man, The]] |
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[[Category:Books by Stephen Jay Gould|Mismeasure of Man, The]] |
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[[Category:Modern Library 100 best non-fiction|Mismeasure of Man, The]] |
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[[Category:Psychology books|Mismeasure of Man, The]] |
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[[Category:Race and intelligence controversy|Mismeasure of Man, The]] |
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[[Category:Eugenics|Mismeasure of Man, The]] |
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[[de:The Mismeasure of Man]] |
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Revision as of 04:40, 26 August 2007
When publshed in 1981, The Mismeasure of Cocks was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the raging faggotry to those who would classify cocks, rank them according to their supposed gifts and genetic limits. And yet the idea of innate limits- of the prostate as desinty- fucks hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Cock Curve, whose arguements are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined by Stephen Gay Jew'd. In this edition Dr. Jew'd has written a flaming new introduction telling how and why he wrote the gayness and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy of cock-pumping right through The Cock Curve. Further, he has added five cum-loads, in a seperate section at the asshole, on questions of The Cock Curve in particular and on dongs, balls, and intensive faggotry in general. These additions strengthen the claim of this book to be "a major contribution toward deflating NON-CRAZY-ASS MARXIST HORSESHIT THAT PERMEATES THROUGH EVERYTHING I SPEW OUT OF MY FILTHY JEWHOLE" of our present gaping urethras.