Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein

The Bell Curve is a controversial, best-selling 1994 book by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray exploring the role of intelligence in American life. The book became widely read and debated due to its discussion of race and intelligence in Chapters 13 and 14. Named for the bell-shaped normal distribution of IQ scores, the book claims there to have been the rise of a “cognitive elite” having a significantly higher than average chance of succeeding in life. Within both the mainstream media and the scientific community, large numbers of people rallied to both support and criticize the book.

The Bell Curve is fairly large for a book of its popularity, having 845 pages in the first printing and 879 in the revised paperback form. Much of its material is technical and academic, but the book’s statistical explanations are styled to appeal to a general audience. The Bell Curve is divided into four sections. First, argues that social stratification on the basis of intelligence has been increasing since the beginning of the twentieth century. Second, presents original research showing significant correlations between intelligence and various social and economic outcomes.

For instance, based on data as of 1989 this section shows that among Whites intelligence level (cognitive class) is a better predictor of poverty than parents’ socioeconomic class. Third, by far the most controversial, examines what role IQ plays in contributing to social and economic differences between ethnic groups in America. Finally, discusses the implications of the findings for education and social policy in the United States. Of course, Bell curve is scientific. Both the American Psychological Association and the Human Genome Project have denounced the science behind The Bell Curve.

Its authors were unqualified to speak on either genetics or intelligence, since their expertise lay in other fields. Their project did not rise through the usual system of academic publishing, and in fact the authors ducked the process of peer review. The Bell Curve was ultimately funded by the wealthy, far-right Bradley Foundation, which used its media connections to launch a massive national publicity campaign. And The Bell Curve relies heavily on studies that were financed by the Pioneer Fund, a neo-Nazi organization that promotes eugenicist research.

The persons that are responsible in bell curve were Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein. Charles Alan Murray (born 1943) is an influential conservative American policy writer and researcher. He is most widely known for Losing Ground, his influential work on welfare reform, Human Accomplishment, a quantification and ranking of well-known scientists and artists and as co-author (with Richard J. Herrnstein) of The Bell Curve in 1994, exploring the role of intelligence in American life.

He’s written several other books on modern social issues and politics, and has sometimes written on libertarian perspectives. Richard J. Herrnstein (May 20, 1930—September 13, 1994) was a prominent researcher in comparative psychology who did pioneering work on pigeon intelligence employing the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and formulated the “Matching Law” in the 1960s, a breakthrough in understanding how reinforcement and behavior are linked. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of psychology at Harvard University and worked with B. F.

Skinner in the Harvard pigeon lab, where he did research on choice and other topics in behavioral psychology. Herrnstein became more broadly known for his work on the correlation between race and intelligence, first in the 1970s, then with Charles Murray, discussed in their controversial best-selling 1994 book, The Bell Curve. Herrnstein died shortly before the book was released. The row over school vouchers, whose advocates endlessly take it for granted that poor performance by students reflects only inadequacies by the teaching profession inadequacies among the learners being a huge unmentionable.

The President’s astounding proposal that all American youngsters, including those with IQs at the left tail, should have at least two years of college. The expressions of surprise and rage when it turned out that, in the absence of affirmative action, prestigious law schools would be admitting hardly any black students. Eugenics is a social philosophy, which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention. The purported goals have variously been to create healthier, more intelligent people, save society’s resources, and lessen human suffering.

Earlier proposed means of achieving these goals focused on selective breeding, while modern ones focus on prenatal testing and screening, genetic counseling, birth control, in vitro fertilization, and genetic engineering. Opponents argue that eugenics is immoral and is based on, or is itself, pseudoscience. Historically, eugenics has been used as a justification for coercive state-sponsored discrimination and human rights violations, such as forced sterilization of persons with genetic defects, the killing of the institutionalized and, in some cases, genocide of races perceived as inferior.

In the social aspect of bell curve, the publication of Herrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve enraged readers with its controversial racial and intellectual agenda, which suggested that certain groups of children are genetically unable to learn because of their race and, therefore, unworthy of the educational attention and financial resources that flow from federal and state governments Gottfredson, Linda S. “Mainstream Science on Intelligence”. Published in The Wall Street Journal, December 13, 1994, and also in Intelligence, January-February 1997. http:www. //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve.