Re: [Marxism] Bonds, Genes, Racism

["Sayan Bhattacharyya" <ok.president+marxmail@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/11/07, Naveen Jaganathan <naveenkj3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Since your absurd argument about Barak Obama being the negation of racism in
> America has already been addressed, let me take this one up.
>
> > Naveen: That sociobiology is racist,
> > and new tracts, however implicit in its racism is still racist should be
> > obvious to anyone that has seriously looked at this subject.
>
> >Sayan: Ah... the "it is obvious" (non)-argument.
>
> Sayan,
>
> May be you are unfamiliar with the history of Sociobiology.  It is not some
> "scholarly" study motivated by academic interests, that ought to be answered
> at only an academic level.  These "studies" had/have real world
> consequences.  When Samuel Morton
> When the "Bell Curve" was published it was used by the likes
> lack of cultural prowess.  For a good analysis of all of this, read
> "Mismeasure of Man" by Stephen Jay Gould.


Okay, I see the problem here. By "Sociobiology" you seem to be
referring to the people who did skull-measurements many decades ago,
and "The Bell Curve" authors, and people like that. That stuff has
been discredited, for good reason.

But in the academy, that is not what sociobiology refers to today.
Sociobiology is mainly associated with the work of the biologist E.O.
Wilson, who teaches at Harvard. No one refers to "The Bell Curve"
authors as sociobiologists.

The word "sociobiology", in fact,  was coined by Edward O. Wilson in
the 1975 book, "Sociobiology: The New Synthesis".

See: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociobiology>. As this Wikipedia
article states:

"Sociobiology is often associated with arguments over the "genetic"
basis of intelligence. While sociobiology is predicated on the
observation that genes do affect behavior, it is perfectly consistent
to be a sociobiologist whilst arguing that measured IQ variations
between individuals reflect mainly cultural or economic rather than
genetic factors."






The bringing up of cranial-measurement people, "The Bell Curve", etc.
is a straw-man argument.

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