Lewontin's Fallacy

[arisbe]

"A proper analysis of human data reveals a substantial amount of information about genetic differences. What use, if any, one makes of it is quite another matter. But it is a dangerous mistake to premise the moral equality of human beings on biological similarity because dissimilarity, once revealed, then becomes an argument for moral inequality. One is reminded of Fisher’s remark in Statistical Methods and Scientific Inference 'that the best causes tend to attract to their support the worst arguments, which seems to be equally true in the intellectual and in the moral sense.'" -- A.W.F. Edwards, "Human genetic diversity: Lewontin’s fallacy" (.pdf).

Comments

[lhasa7.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I tend to the inegalitarian point of view but try to keep an open mind; obviously social conditions play a huge role in human manifestation, and most points of view seem to be self-serving on some level. Jensen’s refutation of Stephen Jay Gould however is something that I think everyone interested in the subject should read, since I think it makes a very conscientious attempt to precisely demonstrate the shortcomings of the opposing position:
http://www.debunker.com/texts/jensen.html

And it’s interesting to see the Wikipedia entry on Jensen isn’t hotly contested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Jensen

[siderea]

Thank you for the pointers! They were quite informative and interesting; I expect to have a lively time of it when I have to take a class in intelligence testing (some time in the next four semesters, I expect), and these could come in quite handy.

Jensen presents a cogent defense of the science, as one might expect a scientist to, but it is a disappointment he doesn't also tackle the equation of intelligence and human worth, an underlying engine of this controversy which I think is morally bankrupt. As Sojourner Truth is said to have put it:

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

[lhasa7.livejournal.com]

Well, Gould is also a scientist (of the housebred sort that got patted on the head every 10 seconds by the establishment media when he was alive), and it takes quite an effort for me to read Jensen’s piece without getting a definite impression that Gould was dealing from the bottom of the deck in this debate.

Your other point is a complicated one, given that it is very hard to put any definite meaning on a concept such as ‘human worth’, however much it may seem to have an instinctive sense. I used to be pretty stridently egalitarian in my college days, but having had the unfortunate position of being grossly mismanaged in professional contexts by ‘little half measure full’ types, I am now singing another tune. Here’s another one to ponder:
http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ckank/FultonsLair/013/nock/paradox.html

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Sojourner Truth, Karl Fisher, and AWF Edwards are all on the same page with Mr. Jefferson, that we are all equal in the sense that there are some things that you just can't do (morally, I mean) to a human being, and this has nothing to do with race, religion, or IQ.

Gould seems to have been a pretty dishonest scholar, but that's how you become rich and famous. A classic review is here:
http://www.eugenics.net/papers/rushton.html
But note the author (as I'm sure you have noted the URL):
http://www.eugenics.net/papers/nolib.html
Not somebody you would quote in polite academic company!

Nor AJN either, though a little Nock is always welcome.

[lhasa7.livejournal.com]

Thanks for those links. I have a sort of instinctive agreement with the folks you mention on that moral issue, though I’m just beginning to try to sort out my thinking on the subject (these days I am hoping that revisiting Christianity, which I departed from at the onset of adolescence, might help for me). While I greatly admire Nock, I’ve never quite been able to swallow his line of thinking in ‘Are All Men Human?’
http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ckank/FultonsLair/013/nock/human.html