He says there is an orthodoxy in the Academe, consisting of three tenets: Gender is a social construct, race is a social construct, and class is a function of privilege.

This is the stance Murray adopts in the Introduction. The more important reason to remain calm in the face of Murray’s assertions of biologically fixed differences across gender, class and race is that outrage only feeds into the scientific right’s preferred narrative about this subject, which is that most scientists recognize that the hereditarian position is correct, but refuse to admit it either because they are blinded by their own liberal prejudices, or cowed by oppressive SJW culture on today’s campus. (Looking ahead, in the section on polygenic scores he sets up a “Turkheimer-Plomin” debate, and while conceding that in the middle rounds I am ahead on points, declares me the loser anyway, based on scientific advances that he is sure are going to occur in the next decade. One that happens to pertain to me is that my ideas and research figure in the narrative, and Murray treats my work with respect even as he disagrees with it, which I acknowledge and appreciate. I think there are several reasons to avoid outrage in responses to the book. Those of you who are infuriated by claims about biologically fixed gender differences in behavior, or biological explanations of class differences, will find plenty to enrage you in the book. Scientific racism infuriates me, and I have in the past been goaded into charges of “pseudoscience” when confronted with Murray’s claims about race I am going to avoid doing that here. Nevertheless, the book is based on Murray’s reading of scientific data, it is carefully argued, and I think it needs to be rebutted in a serious way. There are parts of it that I find reprehensible. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about Murray’s point of view and mine that I disagree with pretty much everything in it. I will write a few blog posts about it over the next few weeks.įirst, a general note about how I am going to approach the book. Charles Murray’s new book, Human Diversity, is out today.

Human diversity charles murray