He was quite specific about inheriting the zeitgeist of the culture you are born into which is quite different from genetics. Slaves in America were brought into the redneck culture while the slaves in the Caribbean were not which he opines made a difference in attitude and achievement. Same "race", different cultural behaviors. Hardly a case for racial traits.
He was quite specific about inheriting the zeitgeist of the culture you are born into which is quite different from genetics. Slaves in America were brought into the redneck culture while the slaves in the Caribbean were not which he opines made a difference in attitude and achievement. Same "race", different cultural behaviors. Hardly a case for racial traits.
If group traits were not at issue, we wouldn't be having this discussion since so much of the chatter about race treats people within ethnicities as a monolith. My observation is that there are group average traits, but I think them more cultural than racial. That could be partly wishful thinking since culture changes faster than human evolution. Much of what Sowell discusses are things that I have observed, and I don't think it a matter of confirmation bias. I generally see things as having some blend with a ratio and would not be so bold as to completely deny nurture.
One of my daughters became interested in DNA and ancestry and had my wife and I do the DNA thing for her. It is interesting how unevenly that divides out over time (my wife and I are of visibly different ethnicities) and also the things that appear to skip a generation and are not lost. The three of us have an above average amount of Neanderthal DNA which traces back to an incredibly long time ago, yet they make predictions about tendencies for us. I haven't done a tally to see if they are more accurate than a horoscope but that they claim that they are an influencer while being so diluted is interesting.
The overlap in distributions of subgroups of humanity are large enough that it would be unwise to make an assumption about individuals because of membership in a subgroup. Even Charles Murray said that in "The Bell Curve". Is there a bias and skew in averages of the measured averages? Yes, but I think caution is to be advised in assumptions drawn from that.
There are ethnic and worldview differences in the people participating in the discussion of Steves commentaries which don't necessarily predict what people have to say about them. I see that as evidence that ethnicity is not a set of shackles on our thoughts though they can be influencers. Understanding that is a big deal.
I'm certainly not trying to cast shade on either you or your opinions with anything I write. It's just discussion.
He was quite specific about inheriting the zeitgeist of the culture you are born into which is quite different from genetics. Slaves in America were brought into the redneck culture while the slaves in the Caribbean were not which he opines made a difference in attitude and achievement. Same "race", different cultural behaviors. Hardly a case for racial traits.
Again, I'm making no such argument.
What argument were you making? As an aside, I'm not trying to argue, it is discussion.
I am making the argument that inheritability is a thing and that pure Blank Slatism is bunk. I made no proposition regarding group traits.
If group traits were not at issue, we wouldn't be having this discussion since so much of the chatter about race treats people within ethnicities as a monolith. My observation is that there are group average traits, but I think them more cultural than racial. That could be partly wishful thinking since culture changes faster than human evolution. Much of what Sowell discusses are things that I have observed, and I don't think it a matter of confirmation bias. I generally see things as having some blend with a ratio and would not be so bold as to completely deny nurture.
One of my daughters became interested in DNA and ancestry and had my wife and I do the DNA thing for her. It is interesting how unevenly that divides out over time (my wife and I are of visibly different ethnicities) and also the things that appear to skip a generation and are not lost. The three of us have an above average amount of Neanderthal DNA which traces back to an incredibly long time ago, yet they make predictions about tendencies for us. I haven't done a tally to see if they are more accurate than a horoscope but that they claim that they are an influencer while being so diluted is interesting.
The overlap in distributions of subgroups of humanity are large enough that it would be unwise to make an assumption about individuals because of membership in a subgroup. Even Charles Murray said that in "The Bell Curve". Is there a bias and skew in averages of the measured averages? Yes, but I think caution is to be advised in assumptions drawn from that.
There are ethnic and worldview differences in the people participating in the discussion of Steves commentaries which don't necessarily predict what people have to say about them. I see that as evidence that ethnicity is not a set of shackles on our thoughts though they can be influencers. Understanding that is a big deal.
I'm certainly not trying to cast shade on either you or your opinions with anything I write. It's just discussion.