Someone (who’s no longer in the Department) got a book in the mail entitled “Race, Evolution, and Life Behavior: A Life History Perspective” by some guy named J. Phillipe Rushton.
My interest peaked, I flipped through and to my eye, it looks like a bunch of white supremicist racist hoo-haa. Is this a guy that is pulling out of others’ research what he wants to hear and presenting it as some major “scientific” study or is there some actual scientific basis for what he’s saying?
I’m suspect because the book came in a white envelope with no return address and only a non-profit org postage paid thing. Nothing else. Not to mention that from what I’ve (briefly) read it is incredibly offensive.
This is a pretty odd site. Here’s the most prominently placed paragraph on the first page, directly above the references to Rushton:
[ul]LEVIATHAN, n. An enormous aquatic animal mentioned by Job. Some suppose it to have been the whale, but that distinguished ichthyologer, Dr. Jordan, of Stanford University, maintains with considerable heat that it was a species of gigantic Tadpole (Thaddeus Polandensis) or Polliwig – Maria pseudo-hirsuta. For an exhaustive description and history of the Tadpole consult the famous monograph of Jane Potter, Thaddeus of Warsaw. [The Devil’s Dictionary A.B.] [/ul]WTF?
Also note, in case you have any doubts as to the good doctor’s political pedigree, that the abstract geometry of his book’s cover art is very clearly inspired by the swastika.
Stephen J. Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man–the peek of the literature on the subject–is a carefully detailed history of “scientific” racism, in which Gould makes use of racist scientists’ own data to disprove their theories, and to prove the opposite: that there is far more variation within a race than between races; that there is no scientific basis for racism whatsoever. I suspect if he hasn’t already, Dr. Gould will make short work of Dr. Rushton. (If he hasn’t, Rushton’s probably not worth bothering with.)
Thank you, all. I checked out the site and have already thrown the book away. The cover is new on this one (“2nd New Abridged Edition!”) and is plain green.
Anyhoo, I’ll have to check out Gould’s book. I like him but I have to have it real quiet when I read him 'cause I need to concentrate!
Sorry to dezombify this thread, but my brother is currently reading this book so I was looking for some good sources that critique it so I can try to discuss it intelligently with him. The above link seems to be dead. Anyone have a good alternative resource?
While lissener is no longer active here, it may be worthwhile to note that the quote from the website within his post is actually taken from Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary, a treasury of mordant witty commentary opn society from the early 20t century.
Well there you go, that explains why it was so hilarious. (Though the Tadpole should more properly have been Thaddeus Polonensis.)
Looking the linked site up on the Internet Archive, I found this snapshot from 2003. It’s got Rushton’s bibliography there (didn’t check if the links are actually archived) and some other material. On the whole the entry sounds rather sympathetic of Rushton. And there’s another quotation from The Devil’s Dictionary atop the page, which I figure should alleviate our confusion as to what it was doing there.
He may be lurking, but if you’ll check his most recent post, you’ll find it was in 2010. And that post (or, more specifically, the response to it) is probably why.
