From: Karsten Bänder (kbaender@bigfoot.com)
Date: Tue Nov 24 1998 - 03:12:24 MST
> I can think of plenty of cases where gender does make a difference. But on many
> traits, the differences seem overrated. For example, height. Males are on average
> slightly taller than females. But if I were to tell you "You will shortly meet two
> people. One is a native Thai adult male, raised in Thailand. The other is a native
> Masai woman, raised in East Africa". You would lose money (on average) betting that the
> male will be taller. Other factors swamp the gender bias.
When using statistics, you can go only one way:analyse a small part of a group and apply the results to the whole group. You cannot guess from a group to an individual. So, racial differences cannot be judged based on a one-on-one scheme. You can only take averages between large groups. This is no problem with physical attributes, which can be determined without problem. But any mental attribute poses some problems. Most psychologial test systems are "localized", developped to be used only on specific groups with certain caracteristics. IMO there does not exist any objective method of determining intelligence or other mental capabilities regardless of social and/or educational background.
You could guess from historic and ethnic development on the advantages and disadvantages of civilizations. You could say that, based on tight population and less-than optimum living conditions, the European civilizationswas forced to evolve to avoid extinction, thus came technical and civilizational advance. China, as an opposite, resolved the internal wars and became a static society for over 1.500 years, because lack of threat caused a lack of evolution. As Biology teaches us, evolution is never without an external factor. This applies to humans, too.
In an ideal world where there would be no longer war and hatred, where people could live together in peace, will there be any evolution?
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kbaender@bigfoot.com
http://members.ivm.de/~Kasimodo/
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"Viele Leute glauben, daß sie denken, wenn sie lediglich ihre Vorurteile neu ordnen."
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