For anybody reading this in the future, "truthteller" isn't the voice of reason in this thread, he/she is a troll.
The link above by defens is a legitimate criticism of The Mismeasure of Man and is well worth reading. It doesn't speak to the overarching theme of the book, which is it's attack on the goals and the content of intelligence testing, but to a mischaracterization that Gould made of the conclusions of someone else's research, turning them into a bit of a straw man representing subconscious testing bias. It definitely weakens Gould's case in that regard.
> The link above by defens is a legitimate criticism of The Mismeasure of Man and is well worth reading.
I agree completely -- the Gould book was an important contribution to the debate about IQ testing, and it contained a number of errors. Both of the above statements are true -- indeed, it's rare for such an important work of this scope to be error-free.
It's my hope that, as psychology is replaced by neuroscience (a process now under way), the role of opinions will be substantially replaced by scientific evidence, which until now has been in deplorably short supply in this field.
The link above by defens is a legitimate criticism of The Mismeasure of Man and is well worth reading. It doesn't speak to the overarching theme of the book, which is it's attack on the goals and the content of intelligence testing, but to a mischaracterization that Gould made of the conclusions of someone else's research, turning them into a bit of a straw man representing subconscious testing bias. It definitely weakens Gould's case in that regard.
The book is still an amazing hidden history.