Indeed, if all social scientists and policy makers took his approach, the overall tenor of popular discussion would improve, I believe. One of the purposes of The Origins Podcast is to connect science and culture, and Murray connects hard science with social science issues in a refreshingly honest and detailed way. But if you take the time, I think you will be pleasantly surprised, as well as learning some new things about the world. I know from experience, as I indicated at the beginning of our discussion, that many people will condemn the discussion without listening to it, just as they condemn his writing without reading it. He is a delightful and thoughtful individual and I believe that comes out in our dialogue. He makes it clear that he focuses on only well understood and well accepted concepts, and the discussion we had was instructive and enjoyable. It is far from controversial, and instead is a clear effort to explain often complex genetic concepts in a popular format. I wanted to discuss his most recent book, Human Diversity, with him. His work has been misinterpreted as being racist and sexist, and at Middlebury College students forcibly stopped his guest lecture and rioted.Īs often the case with stereotypes, Murray is instead a thoughtful scholar who has tried to base his social science research on data from empirical science, something that should be standard, but isn’t. 'There are no monsters in the closet,' Murray writes, 'no dread doors we must fear opening.' But it is a story that needs telling.Human Diversitydoes so without sensationalism, drawing on the most authoritative scientific findings, celebrating both our many differences and our common humanity.After writing the book, The Bell Curve, Charles Murray became a controversial figure in the US Social Science scene, and was much maligned in the public arena. They have stifled progress in understanding the rich texture that biology adds to our understanding of the social, political, and economic worlds we live in.It is not a story to be feared.

The core of the orthodoxy consists of three dogmas:- Gender is a social construct.- Race is a social construct.- Class is a function of privilege.The problem is that all three dogmas are half-truths. “All people are equal but, asHuman Diversityexplores, all groups of people are not the same - a fascinating investigation of the genetics and neuroscience of human differences.The thesis ofHuman Diversityis that advances in genetics and neuroscience are overthrowing an intellectual orthodoxy that has ruled the social sciences for decades.

Murray human diversity