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How smart are you? If that question doesn't spark a dozen more questions in your mind (like "What do you mean by 'smart,'" "How do I measure it," and "Who's asking?"), then The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould's masterful demolition of the IQ industry, should be required reading. Gould's brilliant, funny, engaging prose dissects the motivations behind those who would judge intelligence, and hence worth, by cranial size, convolutions, or score on extremely narrow tests. How did scientists decide that intelligence was unipolar and quantifiable, and why did the standard keep changing over time? Gould's answer is clear and simple: power maintains itself. European men of the 19th century, even before Darwin, saw themselves as the pinnacle of creation and sought to prove this assertion through hard measurement. When one measure was found to place members of some "inferior" group such as women or Southeast Asians over the supposedly rightful champions, it would be discarded and replaced with a new, more comfortable measure. The 20th-century obsession with numbers led to the institutionalization of IQ testing and subsequent assignment to work (and rewards) commensurate with the score, shown by Gould to be not simply misguided--for surely intelligence is multifactorial--but also regressive, creating a feedback loop rewarding the rich and powerful. The revised edition includes a scathing critique of Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve, taking them to task for rehashing old arguments to exploit a new political wave of uncaring and belt tightening. It might not make you any smarter, but The Mismeasure of Man will certainly make you think. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
In the current heated discussions of hereditary vs. environmental impacts on IQ, Gould's National Book Critics' Circle Award-winning book deserves a hearing.
Customer Reviews:
What can I say, it is SJG!.......2007-07-21
It is rare that you find a book that makes you feel smarter and inherently worthwhile as a person just because you read it: this is one of those books. A great behind-the-scenes read of some of the history of statistics, IQ, and the advancement of science. Well worth it!
An interesting and broad study of the history of intelligence measuring.......2007-04-14
Until about a century and a half ago, serious studies were published in respectable scientific journals regarding the correlation between the skull sizes of people and their intelligence. Some people went even further and inferred the mental abilities of people from the shape of their face.
A few decades later, when Darwinism entered the mainstream, many known researchers were pushing purely hereditary systems of intelligence, proposing to sterilize mentally ill, or just "funny looking" people in order to prevent them from reproducing.
Finally, in the 20th century (and probably up until today) research has been focusing on devising test that will assess intelligence in a single number, nowadays called IQ.
These are the topics discussed in great detail in this book. Prof. Gould obviously took this issue seriously, and produced an amazing scope of research on the subject of measuring human intelligence. Actually, the book is so packed with information and facts, that it almost feels like a long scientific paper, which makes some portions burdensome to read. Along with presenting the history of intelligence testing in detail, Gould focuses on two important topics which are the main theme of the book.
One is the unavoidable skew and prejudice that inevitably seeps into many scientific researches, and more often than not reflects the cultural patterns of the era in which the research was conducted. For example, in the 19th century when craniometry was the leading "tool" to try and measure intelligence, many works were skewed by racial prejudice. Researches would, knowingly and unknowingly finagle data to try and "prove" that blacks are inherently inferior to whites, French are superior to Germans, Germans are superior to French, et cetera. In the early 20th century, crude written and oral intelligence tests (which later evolved into the Stanford Binet IQ test) were used as a weapon of people who tried to prove that immigration into America is bad because it lowers the average intellectual level of the residents.
The other is the inherent will of humanity to reify everything (Reification is the attempt to treat abstractions as concretes), sometimes unjustifiably. In the context of the book, an especially unforgivable reification is trying to quantify something as obviously complex and multi-dimensional as human intelligence in a single number. Here is a quote from the book (pp. 252) that describes this well:
"The temptation to reify is powerful. The idea that we have detected something "underlying" the externalities of a large set of correlation coefficients, something perhaps more real than the superficial measurements themselves, can be intoxicating. It is Plato's essence, the abstract, eternal reality underlying superficial appearances. But is is a temptation we must resist, for it reflects the ancient prejudice of thought, not a truth of nature."
Although this book is a bit heavy, it still makes an interesting read, since it gives a rare insight into the sometimes forgotten motives that invariably involve themselves into science. Although in theory science is objective, quite often personal motives, prejudices and just plain subjective patterns of thought creep in, and it is important to know when this happens in order to be able to see the facts clearly.
Exposes the reification and quantitative fallacies that support the belief that IQ can be measured by a precise,exact number........2007-03-08
Gould does an excellent job in demonstrating a basic misconception of many psychologists and economistsabout the measurement of intelligence which leads them to fall into the reification and quantitative fallacies.The misconception is that IQ can be precisely and exactly measured by the use of multiple choice,pattern recognition tests.Intelligence is ,in fact ,complex and multifacted.It is not a simple,unique entity .One of the great problems that one encounters in the social sciences and liberal arts,psychology and economics in particular,is the misbelief that in order to be scientific the researcher MUST be able to come up with a single ,unique,numerical answer.The physical and life sciences can ,in some instances,achieve this goal.It is rarely the case in the social sciences.The best that can usually be accomplished in these fields is to establish intervals/bounds , and/or regions/areas in a phase space, where the solution lies.Inexact measurement should be the goal whenever one is confronted with evolving,complex processes ,which are functions of many independent variables ,many of which exhibit irregular feedback mechanisms over time depending on the particular combinations of parameters that are interacting at one particular period.
Given the obsession that psychologists and economists(or psychometricians and econometricians)have with single number answers, which are unique and stable,it is not surprising that the normal probability distribution is always assumed to be applicable.Suppose that IQ is in fact a shifting interval that reflects the dominance of particular subsets of interacting independent variables.Psychometricians would not know where to start.They would be unable to use their logistic regression analysis.Perhaps a few of them would eventually decide to use the ,lets say, range and median or nonparametric analysis.However,the vast majority would say that the problem was not tractable.They would then go ahead anyway and assume normality.Data would be restricted to variables which are additive.
Gould demonstrates that the current tools used by psychologists are unable to measure intelligence by a longshot.The reader will come away with an understanding of the very limited repertoire of analytical tools currently in use in psychology and other social sciences.
Too Descriptive.......2007-01-16
I never knew the whole story about I.Q. testing and I'm glad my professor required this book for my U.S. Minority Group Sociology class. It took a while for me to be able to get into the book because it is way too descriptive for my liking, but I eventually got into the swing of things and took notes. All in all, I'm glad I read the book and got a better understanding of what the I.Q. test is, what it does, and how it should have been used. If you're one of those people who thinks the I.Q. test is the only test to measure how smart someone is, go ahead and read this book and get a rude awakening.
Trash science.......2007-01-15
After you have read this book and wept at the racist scientists deliberately twisting the evidence in order to pretend that white people are more intelligent than other races, you should read "Race, Evolution and Behaviour" by J Phillipe Rushton for the real science. Rushton shows how the only person responsible for twisting the evidence was Gould himself.
Just consider what Gould wanted you to believe. He wanted you to think that every inherited trait is determined by natural selection, leading to the races across the world having totally different characteristics in every department - colour, height, eyes, blood, hair etc etc. But he preached that somehow intelligence has remained immune to Darwinism. In other words, a race which evolved in a jungle will always have exactly the same average IQ as a race which evolved in a desert, or the steppes, or in the middle of Australia. What utter unscientific nonsense!
Why did Gould believe that Darwinism - which he otherwise revered - would break down when it comes to the brain? The answer is that he had another agenda to promote which came from his own racial background.
Before you believe anything he said in this book, do some research on the man, his background, and what other scientists say about his ideas.
Of course, he wrote like an angel, which makes his biased theories even more dangerous.
Product Description
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History is a collection of essays on natural history and evolution. ISBN: 0395013804, 342pp, illustrated.
The Mismeasure of Man is a fascinating historical study of scientific racism. ISBN: 0395014894, 352pp, illustrated.
8.3 x 5x5 paperbacks in slipcase.
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Shakespeare And the Mismeasure of Renaissance Man
Paula Blank
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
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ASIN: 0801444756 |
Book Description
Shakespeare's poems and plays are rich in reference to "measure, number, and weight," which were the key terms of an early modern empirical and quantitative imagination. Shakespeare's investigation of Renaissance measures of reality centers on the consequences of applying principles of measurement to the appraisal of human value. This is especially true of efforts to judge people as better or worse than, or equal to, one another. With special attention to the Sonnets, Measure for Measure, Merchant of Venice, Othello, King Lear, and Hamlet, Paula Blank argues that Shakespeare, in his experiments with measurement, demonstrates the incommensurability of the aims and operations of quantification with human experience.
From scales and spans to squares and levels to ratings and rules, Shakespeare's rhetoric of measurement reveals the extent to which language in the Renaissance was itself understood as a set of alternative measures for figuring human worth. In chapters that explore attempts to measure human feeling, weigh human equalities (and inequalities), regulate race relations, and deduce social and economic merit, Blank shows why Shakespeare's measures are so often exposed as "mismeasures"-equivocal, provisional, and as unreliable as the men and women they are designed to assess.
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The Mismeasure of Man
Stephen, Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
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Binding: Paperback
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Testing & Measurement
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ASIN: 0140258248 |
Book Description
The new title in the acclaimed Roger the Chapman series Things aren't going too well at home for Roger the Chapman and his wife, Adela. Their fourth child has died only days after being born and Roger fails to conceal his feelings of relief at having one less mouth to feed. Adela naturally resents his attitude and their bitter arguments become increasingly commonplace. Roger decides that to maintain harmony at home the best thing he can do is take up his pack and cudgel and once again leave Bristol to trade his goods in the surrounding countryside. Almost as soon as he makes this decision, he receives a message from King Edward IV's brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, summoning him to London to assist in the investigation into the murder of Fulk Quantrell, the son of one of the ladies-in-waiting to Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, who is on a triumphant return visit to London. It seems Roger has no choice but to return to the dirty, crowded streets of London, where he soon meets a surprising number of people royalty, servants and workers alike who all have a motive for murder.
Customer Reviews:
Another Case for Roger the Chapman.......2006-09-08
Kate Sedley's books about Roger Chapman, the pedlar come murder mystery sleuth are becoming more and more popular and rightly so. They are good entertaining reading with plots and backgrounds that have been well thought out and well researched. They are what I would call light reading (very much like the writing style of Paul Doherty or Bernard Knight, two other well known authors of medieval mysteries).
Roger the Chapman has been at home in Bristol too long. His fourth child has died shortly after being born and his wife Adela believes that Roger has not been particularly upset by this sad event. If truth be told he is in fact somewhat relieved at having one less mouth to feed, but this does not make him feel any less guilty for having those thoughts. Because of the friction between them, Roger thinks a few weeks on the road selling his wares will help to heal the rift.
No sooner has he made his mind up to go on the road he receives a message from Richard, Duke of Gloucester, a man he has worked for before, asking him to travel to London to solve the mystery of a murdered foreigner, a Burgundian. The murdered young man is the son of one of the ladies-in-waiting to Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy. A request from the Duke of Gloucester is tantamount to an order from anyone else and Roger has no option but to go to the crowded streets of London, where a surprising number of the people he questions appear to have a motive for doing away with the murdered man, Fulk Quantrell
Roger the Chapman Returns in an Excellent Medeival Mystery.......2006-01-23
As the capricious English spring vacillates between cold dreary rains and idyllic sunshine, Bristol peddler Roger the Chapman decides to make a quick trip to London to sell his wares and escape from his perceived domestic troubles. The trials of feeding three children and the recent death of his new baby daughter drives ROger to seek the peace of the road for a short while. Not long after his arrival in London, though, the Duke of Gloucester again commands Roger to investigate a London murder that touches a member of the royal household.
The victim, Fulk Quantrell, is the handsome nephew of London matron Judith St. Clair. Fulk had recently returned to London after living in the court of Burgundy, where his mother, Judith St. Clair's twin sister, was a favorite servant to Duchess Margaret of Burgundy. The mystery is set amid the excitement of Duchess Margaret's ceremonial return visit to London. The mystery unfolds quickly, and auther Sedley does a superb job of combining every day life in 1480 London with the development of the mystery. One of the charming aspects of the mystery series is the relationship between the common peddler Roger Chapman and his royal friend the Duke of Gloucester. Also, author Sedley skilfully weaves in events from English history right into the story.
Whether this is your first meeting with Roger the Chapman or you an old friend of the series, I highly recommend this entertaining historical mystery.
Roger Fans: Have you detected a mysterious change in this series?.......2005-08-29
Another can't put it down, fast paced mystery that should win Sedley new fans. If you are not already a Roger fan, I suggest you stop reading this and read "Tregatt"s review. (The series is best read in order, however, start with DEATH AND THE CHAPMAN) If you are a fan I suggest you stop reading until you've read the book. I'm not going to give away the plot, but you may want to enoy the book first before you read further. The problem is: Is this the same, the real, our old Kate Sedley? Suddenly, instead of long, ponderous (but beautifully descriptive) sentences we have short, more precise ones (if a little minimalistic). We are reading much better plotted and organized mysteries. Not that I miss the old "Come on, hurry up and figure it out, and lets get on with it, we readers have figured it out ages ago," Roger. But I do miss some of the flavor of those earlier books. I don't know if the changes are due to: a much more demanding editor, a ghost co-writer, or what. I do realize that there are a few books which, if I had started the series with them, would have been the last I read. Yet in these new, better mystery Roger books some of the what Martin Heiddegger called "the world worlding" that brought the 15th Century to life in a closeup, touchable form, is gone. Also gone is that magical sense of the religious that was so carefully cultivated in the earlier books. There was a little bit of that magic in this one, in that he did dream about the answer to the mystery, but I used to like the way Roger brought God, and his past into the meld. There is also a sort of class conflict in this book that I think the old Kate would have handled better. The Duke treats him like a friend, the suspects like a lower class nusiance--I just think this could have been handled better. And lastly, and this is a spoiler, so you might not what to read on until you've read the book. Roger again does not get rewarded. In fact, he doesn't even work on getting new material for his pack except at the very beginning. In the past economics were always a conern. Why suddenly can Roger go home after a long trip not only penniless, but having to have paid for his apprentice's ale, and whatever. Now again, I like this book, I like Roger as a character, and if the books have to be better told mysteries to attact more readers, then so be it, but I would like more 15th Century meat on my bones, please.
an excellent read.......2005-06-10
Kate Sedley has penned yet another wonderfully page-turnning and riveting read with this latest Roger the chapman installment. One of my favourite mystery series, it's always a treat for me discover that there is a new Roger the chapman mystery for me to sit down and loose myself in, and "The Burgundian's Tale" lived up to my every expectation of an engaging and suspenseful read.
Margaret, the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy and King Edward IV of England's younger sister, is in England for a visit. And London is bustling with excitement as the merchants and townspeople vigorously prepare for the influx of royalty, aristocrats, visiting Burgundians and their assorted retinues. In the midst of all this the murder of young man, Fulk Quantrell, would probably have gone unremarked by many, except that Fulk also happens to be the Dowager Duchess' favourite male attendant. And so Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, asks his trusted servant, Roger the chapman, to investigate Fulk's murder. Fulk, it turns out was the only son of Duchess Margaret's childhood companion and favourite seamtress-in-chief, Veronica Quantrell. Recently, however, Veronica had passed away, and Fulk had asked permission to come to England in order to acquaint his aunt, Judith, with her twin's death. Judith had married well and advantageously, and although she has several dependents that she had promised to make her heirs, all this goes out the window when she meets Fulk and falls for his charms. Could one of the displaced heirs have murdered Fulk out of anger and greed? Seemingly, this should be a rather simple case for Roger to sort out. Except that the more inquiries that Roger makes, the more opaque things become -- Fulk was not the sunny, charming youth his aunt or the Duchess claim him to be, and at the back of everything, is an impression that Roger is getting of something truly evil and sinister lurking, something that Roger senses he has to unveil.
For Roger, the request to investigate Fulk's murder couldn't have come at a better time. Just recently, he and his wife, Adela, had suffered the loss of their newborn child. Roger's grief, however, was also tinged with relief because now there would be one less mouth to feed. And this feeling, which he was unsuccessful at hiding from Adela, has led to an estrangement between the couple. So that Roger was almost ready to go on one of his selling trips in order to put some distance between him and Adela when the Duke's summons came. But this new case, Roger senses, is not only perplexing, but also quite dangerous, and he will have to keep his wits about him if he is to come home to Adela whole of body and mind when it is all finished...
I couldn't resist finishing "The Burgundian's Tale" in one sitting. It was swiftly paced, totally engaging and wholly suspenseful, and was written with such skill and command that time flew, pages turned and I had finished the book before I even knew it. And I had meant to savour this treat over a few days!! For readers not yet in the know, Kate Sedley's Roger the chapman series is not to be missed. It's vivid and colourful and the author does an excellent job of portraying life in late 15th century England, from both the point-of-view of the humbler folk as well as the aristocrats. She has been successfully able to do this by making her protagonist, a humble chapman, who also happens to mix, now and then with the more powerful men of the realm (like the Duke of Gloucester). Add to all this authentic historical detail some really nifty and suspenseful mysteries, and you have a series that can rely on to deliver some truly excellent reads. And "The Burgundian's Tale" makes a fine addition to this wonderful series.
Book Description
Discover the secrets of true power - on and off the playing field! -learn about the power posture before you begin training - without it, you're doing it all wrong -find out why most stretching exercises don't work - and learn the correct way that greatly increases power -build powerful, injury-free shoulders -discover the secrets of powerful movement and why you must train your body from the inside, out -adopt the new power diet and gain maximum strength through supplementation -program your mind to master the 10 components of true athletic power -know why conventional body building training does not produce real power and what you should do instead -dicover the secrets of the "Link Cycle", and train your nervous system to convert strength into explosive power on the playing field
Customer Reviews:
Good technique.......2007-04-21
I enjoy Michael Colgans books. This isn't one of his best, but it has some good strength training info. As an endurance athelete I found this book moderately useful.
Amazing Results.......2005-09-19
This book is awesome. My boyfriend and I have adopted some of the principles in our weight training workouts and we can already see and feel a difference. It is worth it if you are passionate about achieving your strength goals.
Very worthwhile but inconsistent.......2004-09-10
This book is highly recommended for those athletes, coaches and weekend warriors who have a good working knowledge of exercise science - this book is not very suitable for beginners. It addresses issues and topics of periodization, flexibility, and how to train for sports performance while avoiding injury (rather than training for purely cosmetic appeal).
Most of the book is concerned with the useage of weight training to improve power (force) rather than simple brute strength - it's called the Power Program after all. In covering this area it discusses and scientifically justifies the optimum targets and techniques for reps, sets, rest periods and workout length, as well as discussing why eccentric work and negatives are essential; how to train for stability, injury prevention and core strength; the best power exercises for the power phase of the periodised program; and sensible application of plyometrics.
There are countless gems throughout - "even 3% dehydration can reduce your strength by 10%" - but you'll have to dig to find them. The book also includes a cursory discussion of nutrition and mental programming, however these topics probably deserve a whole other text for each. Colgan has published at least 2 books on sports nutrition - the older "Optimum Sports Nutrition", and more recently "Sports Nutrition Guide" - which are excellent sources of nutritional information. All of Colgan's work seems to be targeted at the professional sports end of the scale as they imply the time and money is available to follow the exercise and nutritional programs on a full-time basis. You will also have to put up with his silly cartoons, the occasional odd turn of phrase, and somewhat superior attitude.
Now for the criticisms: as other reviewers have mentioned, some but not all of the photos are a bit poor in quality (obviously from a lower res digital camera); there are contradictions; and it is a little difficult to put programs together. OK, the photos may be a bit lacking in some cases but they still show the exercises just fine. Also on this note of quality, the Apple Publishing "full color large format collector's edition" that I have has started to shed pages as the binding has deteriorated with use, and as a graphic designer I find that the presentation throughout the book is rather poor, still I bought it for the info not the design so it's OK.
Contradictions do occur in the book - the high pull as one reviewer already mentioned - but others too, for example Colgan states that the ideal rest period between sets is 4 minutes, yet all the weight training phases of the periodised cycle use a 3 minute rest. Adding an extra minute doesn't seem like much but this adds up to around 20 minutes per workout, extending the workout beyond the ideal 60 minute range for a workout - so which do you choose? He also emphasises training muscle chains ie multiple muscle groups and joints, for specificity, yet there are exercises included which are isolations, and these don't just occur in the first phase of the cycle where the emphasis is on joint/tendon strength.
Lastly, the book includes only one sample program which is a general program suitable for a variety of sports - as for which ones it doesn't say. Now this is OK if you're happy to spend a couple of hours working a program out which hopefully is suitable for your sport and the facilities available to you, but don't expect to be able to just select a routine from a list of routines - Colgan leaves this to his "forthcoming Power Program Workout Book" which is yet to 'forthcome', or for those who are able to attend one of his training camps. I also feel that the exercises are lacking in developing the posterior chain ie the lower back - glute - hamstring - calf muscle groups. The hamstrings are an especially weak link for most athletes, so for info on this important area I can only recommend that you seek additional info elsewhere (try DeFranco's training and the t-mag websites).
POWER PROGRAM INDEED.......2004-04-19
I have a lot of catching up to do!
After I have read this book I said to myself: "I wish I was aware of such a program when I was in my prime".
The book is very inspiring and stimulating to get into shape and do things the RIGHT way.
Good summary of other books.......2004-03-15
After reading about a dozen books on power training in hopes of
improving my performance in martial arts fighting, this book offers a concise summary of most of the conclusions in other books. The more books one reads, the more contradictions arise.
I have to say that in addition to the staple, top sports conditioning books, this book is great.
Although his writing style is on the sensationalist side, I relished his treatment of core muscle training. What I really would have appreciated were example pages of his Olympic training programs. For example, he talks about a particular sprinter training with one-legged eccentric squats yet doesn't
demonstrate how to do them. Aside from keeping those programs a secret, the book has numberous illustrations of exercises in his four stage program.
Books:
- The Namesake: A Novel
- The Pearls of Lutra (Redwall, Book 9)
- The Pleasure of My Company: A Novel
- The Quilter's Apprentice
- The Sacred Shore (Song of Acadia #2)
- The Saving Graces: A Novel
- The Seductive Impostor
- The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form
- The Sheltering Sky
- The Southeast in Early Maps (Fred W Morrison Series in Southern Studies)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Parasite Menace
- Natural Reef Aquariums: Simplified Approaches to Creating Living Saltwater Microcosms
- Cronica de una muerte anunciada
- Happy Endings: The Tales of a Meaty-Breasted Zilch
- History: Fiction or Science
- Liquid Crystal Displays: Addressing Schemes and Electro-Optical Effects
- Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War
- Matta: Making the Invisible Visible
- Historical Geology: Evolution of Earth and Life Through Time
- The awkward warrior: Frank Cousins, his life and times
Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book)
Ever Since Darwin: Reflections on Natural History
One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
