Nature vs. nurture

The column by Massimo Pigliucci, "Is Evolutionary Psychology a Pseudoscience?," (March/April 2006) falsely asserts that The Bell Curve, by Herrnstein and Murray, makes claims about the "genetic determinism of human cognitive traits." Nowhere in the book do the authors make such claims. On the contrary, Hernstein and Murray suggest that both heredity and environment influence intelligence. For example, on page 311 of the book, they state: "It seems highly likely to us that both genes and the environment have something to do with race differences [in IQ test scores]." In fact, the position of Herrnstein and Murray on the matter of nature vs. nurture is remarkably similar to that of Steven Pinker in the excerpt of his book, The Blank Slate, that appeared in the March/April 2003 issue.

Prof. Pigliucci is simply repeating scurrilous politically correct gossip about the book.

Robert L. Boyd

Associate Professor of

Sociology

Mississippi State University

Mississippi State, Mississippi

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