FROM THE MARGINS
In writing this column I find myself torn by the intrinsic fascination of science on the one hand and the complicated interaction between science and the general political life of society on the other. So I'll have to compromise.
Many of you will know that Darwin agonised over the publication of his evolutionary theories for decades, fearing the reaction from the largely Christian world he inhabited. He rightly foresaw that his ideas would be interpreted as an heretical attack on established Christian doctrine and on the very foundations of an orderly and moral social order.
He was not the first scientific iconoclast to have such justifiable qualms. But for the fearless support he received from Thomas Huxley "Darwin's Bulldog" his ideas may not have spread as rapidly as they did. Nor, perhaps, was Darwin able to fully foresee the misuse of his ideas to support eugenic and racial ideologies which culminated in the Holocaust and set in motion the cultural tsunamis which make much of research dealing, directly or indirectly, with human history and human behaviour a veritable minefield.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the field of intelligence. Let's stop right here for a moment and ask the question: when and why did intelligence become such a central issue in both science and political infighting? If you had approached a knight in the 14th century, say, and boasted that you were smarter than him, in all likelihood he would have responded by saying "so what?" and giving you a klap on the side of your head with his sword to emphasise the point.
Being bright in the 14th century did not win you fair maidens, honours, land or deference; being fearless, loyal, appropriately aggressive, strong and athletic did. Good looks and good birth also helped. While stupidity did not win you brownie points, high IQ was not at the top of the list. In fact IQ is derived from the German term, intelligenzquotient, only coined by William Stern in 1912. The word genius, which we associate with high IQ plus creativity, goes way back to the Roman term for the 'guiding spirit' of a person, family or even place. It slowly transformed into denoting an unusual receptivity to ideas and beauty combined with exceptional creativity, a combination which is not precisely captured by IQ but was recognised in very special persons throughout the ages.