One of the things that was striking about the recent diavlog between Razib Khan and Eliezer Yudkowsky is that Razib seemed intent on bring up the issue of race but then didn’t do a lot with it. Razib’s views on race have generated controversy in the past and in my opinion have tended to distract from other important arguments he has made.
My question for readers is this: What are your thoughts on race realism? How important is it? Should serious discussions of race be downplayed or played up?
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Friday ~ February 12th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
teageegeepea
“Those who subscribe to the opinion that there are no human races are obviously ignorant of modern biology.” — Ernst Mayr
I’ve been critical of McCloskey, but here I think the “oomph” concept can shed some light. Race realism is like statistical significance, identifying whether some effect is real. But that’s a separate issue from how important it is. As Razib himself notes in the diavlog, a lot of the importance is “socially constructed”: some people care about it even though to others the fuss seems silly. But really the correct answer to the question “Is it important?” is “For what?”.