Sam Harris and the Myth of Perfectly Rational Thought

[Jim__]

29. Rather than do this back-and-forth, I'm going to post a link to the article ...

... Harris is complaining about.

For anyone interested who hasn't yet read it, here is a link to the article that Harris is complaining about - I think the article is well-worth reading. Most of the article is an attack on the claims made by Murray. I believe it would have been far more interesting for both Harris's readers and Vox' readers if he had engaged with the substance of the article.

A short excerpt:

...

Murray’s premises, which proceed in declining order of actual broad acceptance by the scientific community, go like this:

1) Intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, is a meaningful construct that describes differences in cognitive ability among humans.

2) Individual differences in intelligence are moderately heritable.

3) Racial groups differ in their mean scores on IQ tests.

4) Discoveries about genetic ancestry have validated commonly used racial groupings.

5) On the basis of points 1 through 4, it is natural to assume that the reasons for racial differences in IQ scores are themselves at least partly genetic.

Until you get to 5, none of the premises is completely incorrect. However, for each of them Murray’s characterization of the evidence is slanted in a direction that leads first to the social policies he endorses, and ultimately to his conclusions about race and IQ. We, and many other scientific psychologists, believe the evidence supports a different view of intelligence, heritability, and race.

...