Political correctness in science.?

Question

Religions are expected to be open minded to evolution due to scientific proof.

Women are expected to accept the fact that physically their just weaker and slower due to pre-existing ancestral gender roles.

One scientist says black people have smaller brains and suddenly there is an uproar and a race issue.

Does PC have any place in science?

Answer 1

No, PC doesn't have any place in science.

But, even if it were true that blacks have smaller brains, what of it?

Brain size in relation to body size indicates the relative intelligence of SPECIES, not individuals.

There's no correleation, within a species, between brain size and smarts.

So, just as PC should have no place in science, neither should racism.

There really is no scientific basis for the notion of race anyway. We're all one species.

As for your other statements, religion are expected to accept the truth, what the evidence and what reason suggest.

Women are expected to accept the truth, that, as a group, more tend to be smaller and physically weaker than men, considered as a group. (As is the case with other primates, and, most mammals, and many other creatures as well.)

Answer 2

It always has.  

Until the last century or two, scientists had to watch what they said or they would be literally tortured and burned by the inquisition.

So today you will be figuratively tortured and burned by public opinion.  I'd say that is progress.

Answer 3

It shouldn't, but neither making claims that have not been placed through rigorous peer review.

One of the most important things about any claim, is that the results should be repeatable by any other scientist who follows the same procedures.

Brain size is something that varies with each individual.

There are going to be some who have smaller brains, and some who have bigger brains.

I'd highly doubt any claim that one race ALWAYS has a smaller brain than another.

Answer 4

It shouldn't be anywhere in the same black as anything scientific.

You need to use some discretion regarding whom you call a scientist. No credible scientist is unaware that black people and white people are of the exact same race.

So, the individual who made the statement regarding blacks having smaller brains is...NO scientist! He may have some make-believe bogus semi scientific degree from some bible thumper "school" such as Bob Jones "University" but...he ain't no scientist! Moreover, the "degree" is worthless.

Political correctness is for imbeciles... not average people.

Answer 5

Political correctness does not apply to Science. Scientists are required to be 'Scientifically correct' - that is reliable, scientifically accurate, verifiable, and scientifically objective. Guidelines for ethical conduct in scientific research are far more strict and consistent than 'political correctness'.

Also, your information on the last statement is outdated,

"There is no appreciable difference between the average brain size between people of recent African origin or those of more distant African ancestry (i.e. Asians, Europeans, North Americans).

In addition, there has been no evidence that would indicate that small variations in brain size have any corellation with intelligence.

Larger scale differences in brain size, as is seen in the difference between Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo erectus, or Homo erectus and Homo habilis, or Homo habilis and Australopithecus africanus are probably indicative of an overall difference in intelligence.

Interestingly, the average size of the Neandertal's brain was larger than the average size of modern man's brain. (~1400 cc for Neandertal, vs. 1260 cc for modern man). Kind of makes that stereotypical view of Neandertals as stupid, brutish louts pretty questionable." -pasted from another YahooAnswerContributor  http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

If you have difficulty being objective in adhering to standards of scientific research then Science may not be the field for you.

Answer 6

No...if there is a working theory...I think the theory was based on physical size not mental capacity..I guess there is taboo in aspects of free thought...and an over zealousness to find a race issue in everything said, done or not done.

Answer 7

First, he did not say smaller brains, but lower average intelligence and the reason is biological/genetically driven. That is in advance of the data we are not allowed to discover due to PC nonsense. There is an IQ variance, but the cause is not well known just because of your observation of PC interference. Remember, on average and normally distributed.

And you, Q, need to sharpen your statistical analysis a bit. Your ideologically driven position ( I must assume that is true ) that men and women have a large overlap in physical strength is not supported by the data.

Answer 8

Well, first of all, I don't think scientists expect religions to be open minded--they just expect religions to leave science alone, because the two are completely different, and because, in the US, due to the separation of church and state, religion-based scientific theories have no place in public schools.

Women are not expected to accept the fact that they're physically weaker than men--women in general ARE weaker, but on an individual basis, there are plenty of women who are stronger than men. There's huge overlap.

As for scientists saying black people have smaller brains and the uproar that ensues: the reason for this is that it's just plain old BAD science. It was disproven a very long time ago, so you can expect scientists to be as annoyed with it on a scientific basis as they would be annoyed if someone started saying that Lamarck was right, or the heliocentric hypothesis is wrong and the sun revolves around the earth, or that gravity doesn't exist. It's just plain wrong. You can expect, however, that greater emotionalism is involved because of the long and tragic history of abuse, slavery, and murder that has been justified by this incorrect scientific assertion. Unless someone has some new information, they're  just repeating the same tired old wrong theories that are total BS, and that even 100 years ago, people were making fun of.

As for whether or not PC has a place in science: scientific results are supposed to be free of political bias, so in that sense, no, there is no place. But the outcry against this alleged brain research isn't because it's not PC, it's because it's WRONG.