Amazon.co.uk: The Mismeasure of Man (Penguin Science): Stephen Jay Gould: Books

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Synopsis
This text exposes the fatal flaws in intelligence testing and reaffirms the variety of human potential. Included are five new essays on questions of "The Bell Curve" in particular, and on race, racism and biological determinism in general.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

A good, timely and necessary book., 10 Jan 2002

By	Brian Flange "qflestrin" (Penge.) - See all my reviews

Gould has entered hot and disputatious waters with this particular book, now substantially revised and expanded to keep it abreast of recent developments in the ongoing debate about how to measure and quantify intelligence. Before criticising this book (or, too often, a caricature version thereof) it's worthwhile keeping a very close eye on Gould's own mission-statement: this book is not (repeat, NOT) a politically-motivated attack on I.Q. testing per se, nor yet a plea for "anything goes" obscurantism about the scientific investigation of the mind - rather, Gould offers a sustained and notably well-informed attack on a narrowly-focused but potentially highly dangerous doctrine, namely that view of intelligence which reduces all mental fitness or excellence to a single, inheritable, directly quantifiable factor which is essentially immune from change by environment or social factors. This is Gould's target and this specificity of aim should never be forgotten when this book is reviewed or discussed. As Gould demonstrates at great length, statistical reasoning is like any other branch of enquiry, in that if it applies a correct method to flawed, partial or self-serving premisses it will go as badly awry as the most illogical thinking. Gould is emphatically not attacking statistical analysis as a tool of scientific investigation, but rather attacking the way in which highly questionable assumptions about racial or intellectual "inferiority" have been smuggled into scientific investigation as "unbiased" first principles. Far too many of Gould's critics have served up an utterly distorted caricature both of the man and his methods - presumably because engaging with a cardboard Gould is so much less time-consuming than troubling to engage with the issues themselves. Not the least of Gould's virtues as a contributor to the intelligence testing debate is that he lays out his stall with complete clarity and sincerity from the outset - he makes absolutely no effort to disguise or distort his own views, and never claims an unbiased stance - a piece of notable intellectual honesty which this reviewer at least found greatly to Gould's credit. Gould's book is timely, well-researched and compellingly written. Alas, if only there was no need for Gould's sterling efforts.

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