Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 18:57:32 -0400 Subject: Bell Curve Dear Gene and others commenting

From:    Eddy Pendarvis 
Date:    Wed, 26 Oct 1994 18:57:32 -0400
Subject: Bell Curve

Dear Gene and others commenting on THE BELL CURVE.  I've been deleting
messages since I haven't had time to read them, but seeing the reference
to this new book stopped me.  I just heard about the book today (I know,
I know), but the Newsweek article about it, which I picked up this
afternoon, makes it sound very much like Seligman's recent book on IQ,
although his book makes a claim for the stupidity of poor people and
doesn't emphasize race as much as this one.  It's depressing that these
same, tired arguments come up again and again.  I think Lewontin, Rose,
and Kamin in NOT IN OUR GENES and Stephen Gould in THE MISMEASURE OF
MAN adequately addressed the lines of argument and the types of data
presented by these authors.  I plan to pick up a copy soon, but it's
discouraging that these books get popoular press, e.g. Newsweek articles,
while their opposition, seems to get little attention (except maybe in
the New York Review of Books).  I think the major problem is that their
line really appeals to the majority, who consequently have little patience
for the difficult threads of argument that have to be unraveled in disputing
Jensen, Herrnstein, Seligman, et al.--Eddy


--
Eddy Pendarvis
Professor of Special Education
Marshall University
Huntington, WV
1.304.696.2855

--
"A monkey will eat dirt -- if you make him."