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Mind in Science
ROOK
R. GREGORY. Mired in Scierlce.
Weidenfeld
& NIcholson,
473
REVIEWS
London
(1981). xi + 641 pp. f18.50.
This is a book that will take the reader on a dazzling intellectual adventure over the topics of alchemy, memory, logic, theories of light, intelligence. astronomy, sensation, dreams, language, seeing machines, hand tools and many more, all held together by Gregory’s primary constellation of philosophy. psychology and physics. Only a handful of contemporary scholars would even consider the awesome task of integrating the vast array of disparate topics which seem to most observers to be carelessly scattered throughout our intellectual galaxy. Of the few who would attempt such an integration in which the human mind is at the .Jortex even fewer would succeed. In Mind in Science the reader will find an eminently successful attempt. The book will delight the lay reader and serve as a challenge to the professional psychologist, physicist and philosopher. It is clearly written and exciting. Man\ readers will read far into the night, as I did, eager to discover what new areas may unfold. Many, if not most. modern psychologists have focused their attention on the features of the science with little regard for the links that bind the features together. This isolation of features has served the science well and we know quite a lot about the varied domain of the mind. But, for Gregory the fascination of psychology, physics and philosophy is not SO much in the isolation of events as it is in the relationship between events. It would be incorrect to say that in the book we find the origin of the science of linkage, but we do find the sigmficant advancement of that science. The author draws heavily on his intellectual predecessors and we find references to Aristotle, Capra, Carnap, Chaucer, Russell, Wittgenstein, Galileo. Huxley. Leibwiz, Mach. Darwin, Cornsweet, Cicero, Freud. Euclid, Craik and dozens more. Additionally. it appears that Boring’s history of experimental psychology guided Gregory in his selection of and exposition of topics. Specialists in the field of intelligence and the measurement of IQ may find this section disturbing and it should be noted that Gregory’s interpretation of intelligence differs from commonly held ideas. This section could have been strengthened by further research and rewriting. But never mind the confusion over intelligence. the wild rhetoric, the excited exploration of a firefly, the uneven treatment of consciousness etc. Those who criticize the book on these aspects miss the importance of Gregory’s contribution. A careful reading of the book will compel the reader to think seriously about the mind and its relationship to psychology and matter and (perhaps) to cause the reader to apply scientific wisdom to his or her everyday life. Richard Gregory reminds us that his father \\as an astronomer. We can only speculate on the influence of his father in encouraging Richard to look beyond the universe. If so that collective wisdom is now available for us in Mind in Science. ROHLRT L. SOLSO
G. MEHLHORN and H.-G. MEHLHORN: I~relliyr~. Z[rr E@~huny Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften. Berlin (198 I). 186 pp.
und Entwicklur~g
Grisrigrr-
fiihigkrircw
VEB
This is an interesting contribution from Communist Germany to the discussion of intelligence and education. It is divided into two equal parts, one of which gives a discussion of the development of concepts of intelligence. while the other reports original work on a large scale done in East Germany. The latter is interesting because some of the results are surprising. to say the least. Thus over a IO-year period there seems to have been an increase in scores on the Ravens Matrices of something like 5 points! The authors account for this in terms of new methods of education, improvements in schooling etc. Such claims deserve careful scrutiny. particularly as coming from a country where fulfillment of ‘plans’ is often a basic requirement for professional advance. so that one would like to be reassured about the independent supervision and careful monitoring of the tests given in schools. Other data referred to the relationship betxveen achievement and intelligence, social class, parental interest and many other environmental factors: all of these are of considerable interest. In their introduction the authors distance themselves very carefully from beliefs current among so-called ‘Marxist’ writers in the West who attempt to discredit genetic interpretations of IQ differences. The authors of this book point out that such beliefs find no support in the writings of Marx and Lenin, and quote many passages stressing genetic factors in intelligence and achievement. Even so they criticize what they call ‘bourgeois’ authors (including the present writer) of exaggerating the degree of genetic determination. This may get them in trouble with the commissars responsible for censorship; have not Lipoveckaja, Kantanistova and Chamaganova recently reported a study on MZ and DZ twins, using a Russian form of the WISC, in which they found a heritability for Russian children of 0.78-higher than the ‘uncorrected’ heritability found by the present writer from a reanalysis of all the available Western literature! However that may be. the book is interesting, stimulating, and even where the points made seem to be in error to the present reviewer. they are nevertheless thought-provoking and intriguing. H. J. EYSENCX
R. GREGORY. Mired in Scierlce.
Weidenfeld
& NIcholson,
473
REVIEWS
London
(1981). xi + 641 pp. f18.50.
This is a book that will take the reader on a dazzling intellectual adventure over the topics of alchemy, memory, logic, theories of light, intelligence. astronomy, sensation, dreams, language, seeing machines, hand tools and many more, all held together by Gregory’s primary constellation of philosophy. psychology and physics. Only a handful of contemporary scholars would even consider the awesome task of integrating the vast array of disparate topics which seem to most observers to be carelessly scattered throughout our intellectual galaxy. Of the few who would attempt such an integration in which the human mind is at the .Jortex even fewer would succeed. In Mind in Science the reader will find an eminently successful attempt. The book will delight the lay reader and serve as a challenge to the professional psychologist, physicist and philosopher. It is clearly written and exciting. Man\ readers will read far into the night, as I did, eager to discover what new areas may unfold. Many, if not most. modern psychologists have focused their attention on the features of the science with little regard for the links that bind the features together. This isolation of features has served the science well and we know quite a lot about the varied domain of the mind. But, for Gregory the fascination of psychology, physics and philosophy is not SO much in the isolation of events as it is in the relationship between events. It would be incorrect to say that in the book we find the origin of the science of linkage, but we do find the sigmficant advancement of that science. The author draws heavily on his intellectual predecessors and we find references to Aristotle, Capra, Carnap, Chaucer, Russell, Wittgenstein, Galileo. Huxley. Leibwiz, Mach. Darwin, Cornsweet, Cicero, Freud. Euclid, Craik and dozens more. Additionally. it appears that Boring’s history of experimental psychology guided Gregory in his selection of and exposition of topics. Specialists in the field of intelligence and the measurement of IQ may find this section disturbing and it should be noted that Gregory’s interpretation of intelligence differs from commonly held ideas. This section could have been strengthened by further research and rewriting. But never mind the confusion over intelligence. the wild rhetoric, the excited exploration of a firefly, the uneven treatment of consciousness etc. Those who criticize the book on these aspects miss the importance of Gregory’s contribution. A careful reading of the book will compel the reader to think seriously about the mind and its relationship to psychology and matter and (perhaps) to cause the reader to apply scientific wisdom to his or her everyday life. Richard Gregory reminds us that his father \\as an astronomer. We can only speculate on the influence of his father in encouraging Richard to look beyond the universe. If so that collective wisdom is now available for us in Mind in Science. ROHLRT L. SOLSO
G. MEHLHORN and H.-G. MEHLHORN: I~relliyr~. Z[rr E@~huny Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften. Berlin (198 I). 186 pp.
und Entwicklur~g
Grisrigrr-
fiihigkrircw
VEB
This is an interesting contribution from Communist Germany to the discussion of intelligence and education. It is divided into two equal parts, one of which gives a discussion of the development of concepts of intelligence. while the other reports original work on a large scale done in East Germany. The latter is interesting because some of the results are surprising. to say the least. Thus over a IO-year period there seems to have been an increase in scores on the Ravens Matrices of something like 5 points! The authors account for this in terms of new methods of education, improvements in schooling etc. Such claims deserve careful scrutiny. particularly as coming from a country where fulfillment of ‘plans’ is often a basic requirement for professional advance. so that one would like to be reassured about the independent supervision and careful monitoring of the tests given in schools. Other data referred to the relationship betxveen achievement and intelligence, social class, parental interest and many other environmental factors: all of these are of considerable interest. In their introduction the authors distance themselves very carefully from beliefs current among so-called ‘Marxist’ writers in the West who attempt to discredit genetic interpretations of IQ differences. The authors of this book point out that such beliefs find no support in the writings of Marx and Lenin, and quote many passages stressing genetic factors in intelligence and achievement. Even so they criticize what they call ‘bourgeois’ authors (including the present writer) of exaggerating the degree of genetic determination. This may get them in trouble with the commissars responsible for censorship; have not Lipoveckaja, Kantanistova and Chamaganova recently reported a study on MZ and DZ twins, using a Russian form of the WISC, in which they found a heritability for Russian children of 0.78-higher than the ‘uncorrected’ heritability found by the present writer from a reanalysis of all the available Western literature! However that may be. the book is interesting, stimulating, and even where the points made seem to be in error to the present reviewer. they are nevertheless thought-provoking and intriguing. H. J. EYSENCX