I'm not in favor of intelligence testing, although I think IQ tests might be useful for Binet's original remedial purposes for individuals. I think that cross-racial intelligence testing is based on well-known confusions. My ownly point in starting this was that it's not crazy to measure cognitive capacities using pencil and paper tests, if, for whatever reasons, one wants to try to measure them. That's all. It was a smallish point, not worth belaboring.
--jks
On Sun, 31 May 1998, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Charles replies to Justin:
> <<I agree that if you are doing studies, there is a need to operationalize
> the measures. But "intelligence" has too important a meaning in valuing
> people to allow the limits of ability to measure to limit the application
> of the word to people's abilities.>>
>
> In my view, there is no need to test 'intelligence' or even to posit such a
> category. What's the point of inventing and measuring it, except that
> administrators might want it for the purposes of educational sorting and
> hierarchizing with an appearace of scientific objectivity and that
> 'intelligence' business helps to shore up the ideology of meritocracy?
>
> Further, why even _ask_ questions such as, 'Do different races have
> different levels of intelligence?' I think that racism is inherent in
> questions like the above.
>
> Yoshie
>