The mismeasure of man (Stephen Jay Gould)

13 flashcards · Biology · by lakesare

What is "The mismeasure of man" an entendre for?
Famous aphorism by Protagoras is "Man is the measure of all things". My title parodies Protagoras's famous aphorism about all people, and also notes the reality of a truly sexist past that regarded males as standards for humanity and therefore tended to mismeasure men, while ignoring women. An entendre is a type of figurative language that involves a play on words, typically with a double meaning. The word "entendre" is French and means "to understand," and an entendre is often a subtle or indi…
What's his name?
Alfred Binet, the inventor of IQ tests (France).
What are the stereotypes for: Charles Spearman VS Francis Galton?
Charles Spearman - developed factor analysis to prove G factor! Was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. He also did seminal work on models for human intelligence, including his theory that disparate cognitive test scores reflect a single General intelligence factor and coining the term g factor.Galton - a wild ride Invented regression towards the mean. He was Charles Darwin's half-cousin.
What's the curse of Ham.
Noah gets drunk, Ham tells everyone. The "curse of Ham" is a term that refers to a biblical story found in the book of Genesis, in which the character Ham is cursed by his father, Noah. In the story, Noah becomes drunk and falls asleep, and Ham sees his father in this state and tells his brothers. Noah wakes up and curses Ham, saying that his descendants will be slaves. The term "curse of Ham" has been used throughout history to justify the enslavement and oppression of people of African descen…
Visually imagine: monogeny VS polygeny.
monogeny - all races descended from "Adam" and "Eve". polygeny - all races have separate origins Monogeny is the theory that all human races have a common ancestry and are descended from a single "Adam" and "Eve." This theory is based on the idea that all humans are descended from a single pair of ancestors and that racial differences are due to environmental and cultural factors rather than genetic differences. Polygeny is the theory that different human races have separate origins and are des…
Visually imagine the Hottentot Venus.
Displayed on European stages from 1810 to 1815 as the Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman was one of the most famous women of her day, and also one of the least known. As the Hottentot Venus, she was seen by Westerners as alluring and primitive, a reflection of their fears and suppressed desires.Hottentot was the colonial-era term for the indigenous Khoikhoi people of southwestern Africa, now usually considered an offensive term. From 1814 to 1870, there were at least seven scientific descriptions o…
What do these stand for: pp. VS p.
pp. - pages p. - page The difference between "pp." and "p." is that "pp." is used to indicate a range of pages, while "p." is used to indicate a single page. For example, if you wanted to refer to pages 45 to 50 in a book, you would write "pp. 45-50," while if you wanted to refer to a single page, you would write "p. 45."
Visually imagine stigmata.
Stigmata (Ancient Greek: στίγματα, plural of στίγμα stigma, 'mark, spot, brand'), in Roman Catholicism, are bodily wounds, scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ: the hands, wrists, and feet.
How was the Down Syndrome previously called?
Mongolism. In the late 1970s, Sir Peter Medawar told me that he and some Asian colleagues persuaded the London Times to drop "mongolism" in favor of "Down's Syndrome".
How was the initial IQ calculated: by Alfred Binet by William Stern.
by Alfred Binet - mental age - real age by William Stern - mental age / real age - hence IQuotient! Binet published three versions of the scale before his death in 1911. The original 1905 edition simply arranged the tasks in an ascending order of difficulty. The 1908 version established the criterion used in measuring the so-called IQ ever since. Binet decided to assign an age level to each task, defined as the youngest age at which a child of normal intelligence should be able to complete the…
Visually imagine who said this:
Voltaire This is Voltaire's famous quip about god. Quip - a witty remark.
Visually imagine a nice science metaphor.
A barrel of theory is always full; sciences work with elaborated contexts for explaining facts from the very outset. Creationist biology was dead wrong about the origin of species, but Cuvier's brand of creationism was not a emptier or less-developed worldview than Darwin's. Science advances primarily by replacement, not by addition. If the barrel is always full, then the rotten apples must be discarded before better ones can be added.
Visually imagine why the whites are called Caucasian (after a mountain range in Russia!).
Because Blumenbach thought Caucasus people are most beautiful.