Race, IQ and Intelligence

Paper Summary:

This paper opens with a clear definition of both IQ and intelligence. The writer of this paper contends that IQ does not measure racial characteristics or individual phenotypic characters such as height or weight. IQ results are a measurement of the rank order or relative standing of test scores in a given population. IQ tests measure only cultural content, values and assumptions taught through formal education. This paper discusses the myths about race and IQ which go back a long way, to a time before IQ tests. The writer cites various philosophers and social scientists who believed that the branches of humanity were distinguishable both temperamentally and intellectually. The writer of this paper attempts to legitimize the viewpoint that intelligence is culturally based, not genetically based and that IQ is a measure of very limited usefulness in very limited situations with a very narrowly defined cultural group. This paper also analyzes one's exposure to technology and educational content and its impact on IQ scores, regardless of race or ethnicity.

Table of Contents:
Defining IQ and Intelligence
What About Race?
Conclusion
References

From the Paper:

"The myths about race and IQ go back a long way, to a time before IQ tests. Philosophers Hume, Kant and Hegel all believed that the various branches of humanity were distinguishable both temperamentally and intellectually. As difficult as it is to credit today, Kant and Hume associated "the dark pigmentation of persons of African origin with cognitive deficiencies, and Hegel wrote disparagingly of the natural temperament of Africans as explanatory of their cultures." They came by their prejudice 'honestly': Aristotle had argued that the dark pigmentation of the Africans of Egypt and Nubia in ancient times signaled cowardice. Thereafter, while philosophers no longer seemed to dabble in racial issues, social scientists did."

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