Another year another talented academic having to defend themselves for doing science. Read the article, then read the blog and follow the links. I wasn’t thrilled by what professor HoSang was trying to do to professor Hsu but then this paragraph in particular got me upset:
Then Assistant Professor HoSang once publicly stated (during a social science seminar at Oregon I attended) that he would “do everything in his power” to oppose another (Sociology) faculty member’s effort to explain recent genetic results to the broader field. I found this statement so odd that it stuck in my memory. The paper that elicited the threat is published here. The story behind the publication of the paper (which took something like 4 years; I have read the actual referee reports), by a faculty member who has held tenured positions at both Oregon and Dartmouth, is shocking and contributed to my comments in the last paragraph above.
Unfortunately even without HoSang’s help that is unlikely to happen but I’ve had enough of this over the years. Steven Hsu is not pursuing a racist agenda and his position on “eugenics” (when it becomes possible some genetic engineering should be freely available to all) is perfectly reasonable.
I hope professor HoSang one day gets the kind of reputation he deserves for his activities. To sacrifice ideals genetics and the study of the human mind on the altar of equality will in the long term do more to discredit and damage the admirable notion of not treating different people badly than it will the sciences in question.
Another year another talented academic having to defend themselves for doing science. Read the article, then read the blog and follow the links. I wasn’t thrilled by what professor HoSang was trying to do to professor Hsu but then this paragraph in particular got me upset:
Then Assistant Professor HoSang once publicly stated (during a social science seminar at Oregon I attended) that he would “do everything in his power” to oppose another (Sociology) faculty member’s effort to explain recent genetic results to the broader field. I found this statement so odd that it stuck in my memory. The paper that elicited the threat is published here. The story behind the publication of the paper (which took something like 4 years; I have read the actual referee reports), by a faculty member who has held tenured positions at both Oregon and Dartmouth, is shocking and contributed to my comments in the last paragraph above.
Unfortunately even without HoSang’s help that is unlikely to happen but I’ve had enough of this over the years. Steven Hsu is not pursuing a racist agenda and his position on “eugenics” (when it becomes possible some genetic engineering should be freely available to all) is perfectly reasonable.
I hope professor HoSang one day gets the kind of reputation he deserves for his activities. To sacrifice ideals genetics and the study of the human mind on the altar of equality will in the long term do more to discredit and damage the admirable notion of not treating different people badly than it will the sciences in question.