Timeline for Is the logic of "Herrnstein's syllogism" sound, and are its premises true?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
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| Oct 24, 2018 at 20:57 | comment | added | Watapon Watapon | Alright eff, I agree with you that one must be ready to show the evidence for a genetic component to intelligence with the empirical studies so I can't disagree with you there. It sounds like you have talked to some sociologists since they usually tell me that IQ is a white supremacist social construct.... :p | |
| Oct 24, 2018 at 10:06 | comment | added | Eff | For example, you state that Robert Plomin argues that genetic differences are responsible for most variation in psychological traits. I agree that Plomin argues this, and I also agree with this conclusion from Plomin. But the reason why we can say that traits such as intelligence are largely to due to genetic differences between people is mainly because of heritability estimates of >50% from convergent independent evidence from adoption studies, twin studies and pedigree studies. If we didn't have these studies it would be very difficult to know how much social environment vs genes matter. | |
| Oct 24, 2018 at 9:59 | comment | added | Eff | I agree that sociologists downplay the role of biology massively. I'm simply saying that I don't think that pointing towards rare conditions is the best way to argue for substantial genetic influence. It's very easy for a sociologist-type to say "Well, OK, in very rare genetic conditions genes matter, but the differences between most people is just due to social influences," and then you're stuck. Sure, you've demonstrated a genetic component, but arguing from rare conditions doesn't reveal whether the genetic component is large enough to be of practical significance in general. | |
| Oct 23, 2018 at 4:02 | comment | added | Watapon Watapon | Sociologists downplay the role that biology has in shaping human behavior- consider how controversial it is in just stating that the human brain demonstrates sexual dimorphism- so you aren't correct in your first point. Finally, too much is made of social environment; if that environment consists of child starvation then sure, but a significant environment that is ignored, by the nurture side of the debate, is the pre-natal environment. Cheers, mate. | |
| Oct 23, 2018 at 3:54 | comment | added | Watapon Watapon | Hey Eff, if you read carefully what I wrote you will see that I don't say that down syndrome contributes to much of the variation in the general population, but that premise 1 of Herrnstein is obviously correct; there is a genetic component to intelligence and this is easy to prove since there is no division between genes and behavior. My point that genes and behavior are related is the reason why people like Plomin make the case for why genetic differences are responsible for most variation in psychological traits! | |
| Oct 21, 2018 at 12:45 | comment | added | Eff | The reason why Robert Plomin argues that most of the variation in cognitive abilities and personality is due to differences in inherited genetics is not because of rare conditions such as Down Syndrome. Rather it's because of other lines of evidence (that he also presents in the book), such as adoption studies and twin studies, and more. | |
| Oct 21, 2018 at 12:43 | comment | added | Eff | I agree with what you're saying, however I think no one is arguing for a strict dichotomy of nature or nurture. Most people would be willing to say that there is some contribution of both, for example in rare cases of Down Syndrome as you mention, and on the other hand extreme neglect at the environmental side. The more interesting question is regarding the relative contributions of nature or nurture. Down syndrome cannot contribute to much of the variation in the general population simply because it is a rare condition. | |
| Oct 21, 2018 at 0:05 | review | Late answers | |||
| Oct 21, 2018 at 3:26 | |||||
| Oct 20, 2018 at 23:50 | review | First posts | |||
| Oct 25, 2018 at 11:25 | |||||
| Oct 20, 2018 at 23:45 | history | answered | Watapon Watapon | CC BY-SA 4.0 |