rod mclaughlin

A particularly good example of the fallacy of argument from authority (24 jun 14)

Stephen Jay Gould claimed that a Victorian scientist was a racist because he deliberately misunderestimated African skull sizes, which were at one time believed to be correlated with something called "intelligence". Gould was lying:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/science/14skull.html?_r=0

"But when others suggested Dr. Gould had been refuted, Philip Kitcher, a philosopher of science at Columbia University, rode to his defense.

“It is not entirely evident that one should prefer the measurements of an undergraduate to those of professional paleontologist,” he wrote in 2004.

“Pending further measurement of the skulls and further analysis of the data, it seems best to let this grubby affair rest in a footnote.”"

Portland

London