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J. Philippe Rushton

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John Rushton

John Philippe (Phil) Rushton (born December 3, 1943) is a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, who is most widely known for his controversial work on intelligence and racial differences, particularly his book Race, Evolution And Behavior: A Life History Perspective. Rushton also researches altruism.

Rushton currently sits on the editorial board of Intelligence, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American, British, and Canadian Psychological Associations. He was a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1988, and holds a D.Sc. in psychology from the University of London and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the current head of the Pioneer Fund.

Biography

Rushton was born in Bournemouth, England. During his childhood, he emigrated with his family to South Africa where he lived from age 4 to 8 (1948-1952) Later, Rushton moved to Canada. His father was a building contractor, and his mother, from whom he received his middle name, was French. Rushton received a B.Sc in psychology from Birkbeck College at the University of London in 1970 and in 1973 received his Ph.D from the London School of Economics, working on altruism in children. He then moved to the University of Oxford where he continued his work until 1974.

Rushton taught at York University in Canada from 1974-1976 and the University of Toronto until 1977. He then moved to the University of Western Ontario, and was made a full professor there in 1985. He received his D.Sc. from London in 1992.

Rushton has published more than 100 papers and articles, written a number of books, including a pair on altruism, one on 'scientific excellence', and a psychology text (co-authored). In 1988 he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.

Work

Genetic similarity hypothesis

Rushton began his career with studies on altruism. He has hypothesized a heritable component in altruism and is the creator of the Genetic Similarity Theory, which states that individuals tend to be more altruistic to individuals who are genetically similar to themselves, and less altruistic, and sometimes outwardly hostile to individuals who are less genetically similar. Rushton describes "ethnic conflict and rivalry" as "one of the great themes of historical and contemporary society" and suggests that it may have its roots in the evolutionary impact of individual from groups "giving preferential treatment to genetically similar others". Rushton argues that "the makeup of a gene pool causally affects the probability of any particular ideology being adopted".

Race evolution hypothesis

Main article: Race, Evolution and Behavior

Rushton wrote the book Race, Evolution And Behavior: A Life History Perspective in which he outlines an extremely controversial theory of human nature and the course of world history, placing Blacks, Whites and Orientals on a "tri-level hierarchy" where Blacks are always on one end of the r/K scale, Orientals are on the other, and Whites are in the middle. Rushton began publishing aspects of his theory as early as 1985.

When asked by journalist Peter Knudson to explain the scientific significance of this theory, Rushton replied "Mine is the first scientific theory of the evolution of racial differences in behavior." When asked to elaborate he explained: "Nobody, as far as I know, applies population biology to human differences. Period. I don't know of anyone else who is doing what I'm doing."

Controversy and criticism

Popular science commentator David Suzuki protested Rushton's racial theories and spoke out against Rushton in a live televised debate at the University of Western Ontario. "There will always be Rushtons in science," Suzuki said "and we must always be prepared to root them out!". "Oh, no!" exclaimed Rushton when asked if he himself believed in racial superiority. He went on to explain that "from an evolutionary point of view, superiority can only mean adaptive value--if it even means this. And we've got to realize that each of these populations is perfectly, beautifully adapted to their own ancestral environments." Lisa Suzuki and Joshua Arson of New York University wrote in 2005 that Rushton has largely ignored evidence that fails to support his position that IQ test score gaps represent a represent a genetic racial hierarchy unwaveringly for over 30 years.

After mass mailing a booklet to psychology, sociology and anthropology professors across North America based on his racial papers, Hermann Helmuth, a professor of anthropology at Trent University, said, "It is in a way personal and political propaganda. There is no basis to his scientific research." In his defense, Rushton said, "It's not racist, it's a matter of science and recognizing variation in all groups of people."

Since 2002, Rushton has been the president of the controversial Pioneer Fund, which aims "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences." Tax records from 2000 show that his Charles Darwin Institute received $473,835 — 73% of that year's grants.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (a political group hostile towards race research) has accused Rushton has speaking on eugenics several times at conferences of the American Renaissance magazine, in which he has also published a number of articles. Despite such accusations, Anti-racist Searchlight Magazine described the "veritable 'who’s who' of American white supremacy" as being disgusted by Rushton's views noting that Rushton's suggestion that "Asians might have a higher IQ than whites left more than one diner at our table with a bitter taste in the mouth ".

Rushton has published at least ten papers in Intelligence a journal for which Rushton also sits on the editorial board along with seven other signatories of "Mainstream Science on Intelligence". Another signatory, Douglas K. Detterman, is also its founder and Editor-in-Chief.

He has written articles for VDARE, a website that advocates reduced immigration into the United States.

Rushton's sources, such as the Penthouse Forum, have been criticized by Zack Cernovsky in the Journal of Black Studies. There have also been many other criticisms of the theory.

Support

Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson (one of the two co-founders of the r/K selection theory Rushton's cites) has defended Rushton's:

“I think Phil is an honest and capable researcher. The basic reasoning by Rushton is solid evolutionary reasoning; that is, it is logically sound.”

Science journalist and Ruston critic Peter Knudson stated:

Despite the occasional media stereotype of Rushton as some sort of incompetent scientific adventurist, he has throughout most of his career as a psychologist been seen as a highly competent researcher. He has published more than 100 papers, most of them, particularly those dealing with altruism, in highly respectable journals.

References

  1. Lieberman, Leonard (2001), "How "Caucasoids" Got Such Big Crania and Why They Shrank:From Morton to Rushton" (PDF), Current Anthropology, 42 (1): 69–95
  2. for example, Rushton, J. P., & Bons, T. A. (2005). Mate choice and friendship in twins: Evidence for genetic similarity (PDF). Psychological Science, 16, 555-559.
  3. Publisher
  4. Pioneer Fund board summary; Racial Scientist Rushton Takes Over Pioneer Fund
  5. Rushton's letter on the evolutionary psychology Yahoo group
  6. Rushton's faculty page.
  7. A Mirror to Nature by Peter Knudson pg 180
  8. A Mirror to Nature by Peter Knudson pg 178
  9. A Mirror to Nature by Peter Knudson pg 187
  10. The cultural malleability of intelligence and its impact on the racial/ethnic hierarchy L Suzuki, J Aronson - Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2005
  11. ^ UWO Gazette Volume 93, Issue 68 Tuesday, February 1, 2000 Psych prof accused of racism
  12. Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994). Mainstream Science on Intelligence. Wall Street Journal, p A18.
  13. http://www.vdare.com/rushton/index.htm
  14. Web Archive of Upstream article On the similarities of American blacks and whites: A reply to J.P. Rushton, by Zack Cernovsky
  15. http://ant.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/2/131 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=14992214&dopt=Citation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1488860&dopt=Citation http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/miller-r-personality http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/Library/Miller/env-vary.html http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/expand?pub=infobike://els/10905138/2003/00000024/00000005/art00040&unc= http://www.crispian.demon.co.uk/RUSHRV.htm
  16. A Mirror to Nature by Peter Knudson pg 176

See also

External links

Opinion

Criticism

Works by Rushton

Pro-Rushton

Categories: