If intelligence isn’t at least in part determined by genetics, then why can’t a turtle be raised to have as high an I.Q. as a human being?
We absolutely know beyond dispute that different ethnicities have different physical characteristics, which are easily observable, as well as different health risks and problems, which are less easily observable but have been proven statistically. The brain is a less understood physical organ, but it is a physical organ which gives human beings intellectual and emotional characteristics somewhat different from those of turtles.
It would be simply illogical and baseless to say that the ONLY possible different characteristics between different ethnicities are the easily observable ones which we already have clear proof of. If one is interested in truth, one should remain open-minded about any possibilities which have neither been proven nor disproven.
That being said, this Derbyshire article didn’t even seem to be arguing the case for biological vs. cultural differences. He was only discussing differences as he observed them in the population and didn’t discuss their possible origins. He may have done this in other articles.
Dear JediJones, if the physical brain is "a less understood physical organ," then on what basis can we confidently claim that it is the ground of the "human being's intellectual and emotional characteristics?"
I have recently read, courtesy of the mathematician, systems theorist and theoretical biologist Robert Rosen, that the human "physical brain" is the single most-complex "system" in universal Nature.
It should be needless to say that a "system" is what it is by virtue of its underlying organizational rules. Alternatively put, if it weren't assembled according to certain rules, "random matter" cannot even aspire to being anything at all.
Or so it seems to me, FWIW.
The main point I would like to raise here is the question of whether there is any conceivable distinction to be drawn between the human "brain" and the human "mind."
Are you interested in exploring this topic, dear JediJones? Certainly I am! It would be so much fun!
And possibly even useful for passersbys....
Anyhoot, thank you ever so much for writing!