James D. Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel prize for uncovering the double-helix structure of DNA, is being pilloried from post to post for comments he made to the Times (of London) last Sunday explaining why he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa.” His pessimism rested, he said, on the fact that “[a]ll our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really.”
Watson’s remarks caused a hailstorm of criticism to descend on him. “Genius and malign idiocy often inhabit the psychology of a great man,” read one typical comment in today’s Independent. In short order, Watson “unreservedly” apologized, saying: “I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said. There is no scientific basis for such a belief.”
Watson’s initial remarks were off-hand, and also clumsy. But there is a large scientific literature about intelligence, as measured by IQ, and how it varies by race. The very meaning of intelligence, and the significance of the variation, are subjects that continue to be fiercely debated in the scientific world. Wherever one stands in those debates—and I myself am just a curious observer—the findings of one’s opponents cannot be refuted with the mere wave of a hand.
