Penguin pedagogy
From Professor .1. A. Rex
Sir: It is quite unusual to have an (ugh!) — presumably a belch — gratuitously attached to one's name in a review, and I write, therefore, to protest about the general level of vulgarity of Professor Flew's reference to me in your issue of September 30. I am tempted to ask whether he has learnt his bad manners in the Canadian prairies or the Monday Club. I do, however, remember during my own thesis work under the supervision of a distinguished British philosopher that Flew's philosophical reputation as a young man was considerable. I, therefore, wish to reply briefly to the main points which he makes.
In the first place, even though my chapter in the book Race, Culture and Intelligence was not expected to involve the refutation of Jensen, I did, in fact, criticise
the whole pseudo-experimental approach of psychometrics which eliminates all the important questions in order to produce testable variables. I believe that what I say holds true and is sufficient reason in itself for rejecting the JensenEysenck theory. I gather from those more expert than myself, however, that Jensen's theories are highly questionable looked at in their own terms. Secondly, I discussed the problem of the way in which racism is rationalised and anchored in a society in which biological theories have become disreputable and thought it worthwhile to discuss the role of the various mass media in this respect. Apparently, Professor Flew believes that such questions are best left closed, or that "It simply must be the case that racism could not in any way affect the British quality media. Finally, so far as the general use of biological theories to explain political problems is concerned, I object, and would have expected Professor Flew's support in this, to any theory which suggested that we were subject to a kind of determinism which made human agency ineffective. I said nothing whatever about "the total nationalisation of everything." What Professor Flew has to say about this seems to me to be a product of his fevered right wing imagination and designed systematically to mislead your readers.
John Rex University of Warwick, Coventry, Warwickshire
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