At Our Wits’ End engages the reader from the outset with an anecdote about the Concorde, a symbol of Western innovation. Adding the moon landing to that time’s list of accomplishments, it then laments a loss of capacity. The explanation for declension, rather than being complex and multi-factorial, is attributed simply to a decline in intelligence. The authors anticipate the skepticism of the reader capably, and go on to provide an outline supportive of their claim:
"Don’t be stupid!’ you might be thinking. ‘There are so many complex reasons why we haven’t been back to the Moon! The economic collapse in the 1970s, the end of the Cold War meaning there was no longer as strong an incentive to compete with the former Soviet Union, and attention turning to making life fairer for people on Earth. It’s the same with Concorde. There’s been another economic collapse since then. We just haven’t got round to doing these things, but we could…!”
Without losing narrative thrust, At Our Wits’ End supplies necessary social scientific facts, such as heritability estimates relative to intelligence, so that the reader can place the problem in context. Likewise, the authors recognize and acknowledge the dismal
Chapter two dilates on the nature of intelligence, a concept that some readers might think better dispatched in a terse parenthetical interrogatory on the way to pursuing the primary theme of intellectual declension. Yet, as the authors recognize, intelligence is not a simple concept to be dismissed before moving on to other variables more comfortably discussed within the social sciences. Again, objections are anticipated. Intelligence is not inaccurately measured, just another construct, disconnected from measurable outcomes, or primarily acquired. To the contrary, the reader is provided with a prerequisite synopsis of intelligence, its many correlates, modes of assessment and fundamental importance. Especially important to the book’s later argument, heritability estimates are described, and the concept of g or general intelligence, is understood as distinctly more important as other abilities sometimes put forth as forms of intelligence, such as emotional intelligence.
Dutton and Woodley of Menie take their readers on a tour of the relationship between fertility and intelligence as it has transitioned from positive to negative before and after the industrial revolution. Factors such as welfare benefits, contraceptives, immigration, education, deferred gratification and fertility are broached through the review of literature produced by Richard Lynn, Adam Perkins, and Bruce Charlton, to name a representative few. To these names the illustrious works of Charles Darwin, Robert Thomas Malthus and Sir Francis Galton are added as evolutionary themes are traced through modern history, all tending to a recent decline in intelligence.
Several times in the midst of reviewing negative correlations between intelligence in fertility, the authors acknowledge the controversial nature of the topics reviewed. The two fullest appeals to impartiality and defense of scientific inquiry are placed at the outset, and just prior to detailing the effects of immigration. The appeals ably justify free expression and free inquiry, refuting, for instance, the legitimacy behind suppressing controversial research or demanding outsized standards of evidence for controversial findings in such a way that amounts to de facto suppression. For the disinterested reader, these appeals will suffice. Nevertheless, they will not prove sufficient to ward off critics who begin with preconceived convictions. The ideologically captured will not be swayed, but instead, they may sway the disinterested reader, through subsequent reviews and critiques. And so, the disinterested reader is forewarned of this inevitable tactic: Inconsequential points subject to refutation will be seized upon and held out as representative of the whole, citations will be questioned on the grounds of moral goodness, unsupported observations will be attacked, while insufficiently elaborated points will be highlighted. Together or separately, these approaches will be used to color the perception of the whole. However, the open minded should look for what will inevitably be absent; namely any refutation of the main thesis. Again, the main thesis is relatively simple in that it states that intelligence is declining, and this decline is important because intelligence is heritable, associated with individual achievement, family eminence and social order. Were the authors to have written a book bristling with defenses against ideologically motivated attack, the cogent reasoning and conversational style of this volume would have to be deluged in a sea of references, footnotes, digressions, caveats and interrogatories. This being done, the authors would have done the critics’ work, by entombing their thesis deep beneath the reach of most readers.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
More like At Our Wits' End: Why We're Becoming Less Intelligent and What it Means for the Future (Societas Book 64)
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Loading...
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Top reviews from other countries
Hamhead
Well written with lots of important information. Also, ironically, quite witty.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2019
