Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Ad Hoc Arguments

I've sought to draw a reasonable inference to the best explanation for the consistency and persistency of racial IQ variances based on evolutionary theory and empirical observations.  All the evidence shows that while the IQ gaps narrow when raising up people from extremely impoverished environments to better ones, the gaps remain in all environments. Malnourished Asians not only outperform malnourished Africans, but also middle class Africans and Africans adopted into middle class European families.

J.P. Rushton reports:
Winick et al. [160] studied 141 Korean children malnourished-in-infancy and then adopted as infants by American families. They found that by 10 years of age the children exceeded the national average in IQ and achievement scores: A severely-malnourished group obtained a mean IQ of 102; a moderately-nourished group obtained a mean IQ of 106; and an adequately-nourished group obtained a mean IQ of 112. 
We know that genetic differences among races have some part in explaining why they perform differently on IQ tests. The question is what is the best estimate of the heritabile component of the gaps? Exactly "0%" for all race gaps everywhere is not a serious answer scientifically, but is rather evidence of one closing oneself off from evidence and being driven entirely by ideological pre-conceptions.

Anti-hereditarians who want their fixed a priori position to appear scientific and not purely a derivative of their ideological commitments will thus resort to ad hoc argumentation.  "In argumentation, an ad hoc argument is one that is hastily constructed to support or explain something without any underlying sense or logical framework. Because of this haste and lack of a consistent frame-work, the explanation is likely to contradict existing thought or other arguments. Usually it happens if someone is put on the spot to explain something - they can either deal with it in a consistent manner (meaning that their arguments are consistent for all eventualities so far), change their consistent beliefs to match, or produce an ad hoc explanation off-the-cuff to dismiss it" (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ad_hoc).

The following is excerpted from Robert J. Sternberg's Handbook of Human Intelligence:

Friday, May 18, 2012

It's Irresponsible to Feed Hungry Mouths


The thinking humanists of days gone by like Margaret Sanger supported﻿ sterilization. Today's humanists are much more religious, in that they derive their views from unquestionable doctrines of political correctness, and much more attracted to policies that deliver immediate emotional gratification (feeding hungry mouths) rather than delivering long-term returns on investment (eugenics).  If I randomly offered young Nigerian men $100 each to get vasectomies, I'm sure some would consent to it. Sterilization for women refers to a surgical procedure (see link) that permanently makes pregnancies impossible. It seems to me that this would be the most effective form of contraception. It's safer and less painful than giving birth.

Africa's Population Surge
At current growth rates, sub-Saharan Africa, which now makes up 12 percent of the world's population, will account for more than a third by 2100.

Birth control options for women - Female Sterilization


Killing Africa with Good Intentions

[Channel 4 News] Population explosion causes poverty crisis 
Formerly the capital of Nigeria, Lagos's uncontrolled population growth has made one of the world's largest cities one of the world's largest slums.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

IQ Distributions

The respective IQ distributions of any given races will show overlap. Height distributions among males and females also overlap (height is about 80% heritable; IQ is about 75% heritable).  

Among all people in the U.S. with IQs below 75, there are more blacks than whites.  Among all people in the U.S. with IQs above 100, there are several times more whites than blacks.

We shouldn't be surprised or morally outraged that in professions requiring high-level mental functioning, blacks will be relatively scarce absent Affirmative Action interventions. Denial of racial differences in distributions of cognitive capacity will tend to foster surprise, moral outrage, and demands for Affirmative Action in response to what is natural and entirely predictable.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

How Many Egalitarians Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

Wattage was never intended to measure "brightness."

No one can say what "brightness" is.

"Bulb type" categories don't tell us anything about individual bulbs.