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The Study of Man: Jewish Personality Traits
- Abstract
There has been much talk of Jewish personality traits, but little study of them. Stereotypes supersede critical judgment, argument substitutes for investigation, and the whole question is enveloped in myth. Jews are more intelligent, Jews are shrewd, Jews feel inferior, Jews feel superior, Jews are neurotic or psychotic, Jews are this or that—you take your choice; perhaps the assertions have some basis in reality, perhaps not.
It is possible to determine personality traits scientifically, and such scientific determination must be the final arbiter. While some illumination may be gained from literary and speculative discussions of the Jews, the lone man’s thinking, based on his uncontrolled experience, can do little more than offer lines of study. Only the social scientist, working intelligently within the boundaries of scientific discipline, can tell us which propositions are true and which are false.
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