Edward Dutton - J. Philippe Rushton: A Life History Perspective

J. Philippe Rushton:

A Life History Perspective

Edward Dutton

Edward Dutton, 2018. All rights reserved.

Thomas Edward Press

In 1989, J. Philippe Rushton threw a grenade into the world of human biology. Rushton argued that the three big races Black, Caucasian, and East Asian consistently differed in Life History Strategy. Blacks had the fastest strategy. Adapted to unstable environments, they live fast and die young. East Asians had the slowest, investing in nurture; living for the future. Caucasians were intermediate. This grenade exploded into everything from a criminal investigation to a campaign to get Rushton fired.

What kind of person could conceive of and publicize such an original yet incendiary theory? Analyzing Rushtons research and, for the first time, his life and ancestry, Dutton argues that Rushton himself like many scientific geniuses - was a highly intelligent fast Life History Strategist. But Rushtons Life History strategy was simply too fast for him to be the Galileo-figure that some scientists have portrayed him as. An archetypal Narcissist, Rushton attempted to manipulate people into supporting his model and cherry picked and dishonestly presented his findings. And among many other fast Life History strategy traits, Dutton explores Rushtons dropping out of high school, his multiple divorces, his compulsive lying, his affairs, his two illegitimate children including one by a married black woman, and even his use of physical violence.

Praise for J. Philippe Rushton: A Life History Perspective

Dr Edward Dutton has written a brilliant warts and all biography of John Philippe Rushton and a critical appraisal of his theory that the three big races differ in Life History Strategy. Dr Dutton finds that there is some support for Rushtons theory but also that it has too many flaws to be considered anything like a work of genius. A fascinating book.

Prof Richard Lynn

Formerly University of Ulster, UK.

Aristotle, in his Poetics , identified the salient characteristic of the tragic hero. He is an intermediate kind of personage, a man who is not eminently good or just - yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty. J. Philippe Rushton was just such a person. Intimidatingly intelligent and intellectually daring, this self-styled, latter day Galileo was also prone to hubris and evidently lacked a moral compass. Various unflattering alternative titles for Dr. Duttons compelling book, accordingly, spring to mind: Keep it in the Family: The Curious Case of J. Philippe Rushton; or, Giving Charles Darwin a Bad Name: Nepotism in Theory and Practice; or, more simply, Revolution Betrayed. As Prof Rushton himself prophetically observed on page one of his magnum opus, Race, Evolution, and Behavior ,... people give preferential treatment to those who resemble themselves.

Dr. Leslie Jones

Editor, The Quarterly Review

Contents

About the Author

Acknowledgements

1. A Modern Day Galileo?

2. An Incendiary Thesis

3. Losing the Race

4. Support for Rushtons Model

5. Was Rushton a Genius?

6. Problems with Rushtons Model

7. Rushtons Fast Background and Speedy Youth

8. Maturation to Infamy

9. Why We Must Tolerate People Like Rushton

References

Correspondence

About the Author

Edward Dutton is an independent scholar and writer based in Oulu in northern Finland. Dutton originally read Theology at Durham University, before completing a PhD in Religious Studies at Aberdeen University. In 2012, he made the move from Religious Studies and cultural anthropology to evolutionary psychology and has never looked back. Dutton has published in leading psychology journals including Intelligence, Personality and Individual Differences, and Journal of Biosocial Science. He is Adjunct Professor of the Anthropology of Religion at Oulu University, academic consultant to a research group at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, and has been a guest researcher at Ume University in Sweden and Leiden University in the Netherlands. His other books include (with Bruce Charlton) The Genius Famine: Why We Need Geniuses, Why Theyre Dying Out and Why We Must Rescue Them (University of Buckingham Press, 2015); (with Michael Woodley of Menie) At Our Wits End: Why Were Becoming Less Intelligent and What It Means for the Future (Imprint Academic, 2018) and How to Judge People by What They Look Like (Thomas Edward Press, 2018). His research has been reported worldwide including in Daily Telegraph, The Sun , Le Monde, Huffington Post and Newsweek. Duttons hobbies include genealogy, history and Indian cooking. He is married to a Finn and has a son and a daughter.

Acknowledgements

Parts of this book are taken from sections of or are developments of sections in the following previously published or in press works of mine where I have explored some of the same issues: Dutton, E. (2017). The male brain, testosterone and sex differences in professional achievement. Mankind Quarterly, 58: 93-100; Dutton, E. & Charlton, B. (2015). The Genius Famine. University of Buckingham Press; Dutton, E. & Lynn, R. (2015). Race and Sport. London: Ulster Institute for Social Research and Dutton, E. (2014). Religion and Intelligence. Ulster Institute for Social Research. Table 1 has previously been published in Dutton, E. & Woodley of Menie, M.A. (In Press). At Our Wits End: Why Were Becoming Less Intelligent and What It Means for the Future. Imprint Academic.

I would like to thank Prof Richard Lynn and Dr Leslie Jones for kindly reading earlier versions of the manuscript and providing their comments. Prof Guy Madison, Dr Bruce Charlton and Prof Elizabeth Weiss helpfully read and commented on parts of the manuscript. In addition, I would like to thank the following people who have forwarded me literature or commented on or discussed with me aspects of this book: Prof A.J. Figueredo, Dr Kenya Kura, Dr Mikko Lhdesmki, Prof Gerhard Meisenberg, Prof Michael Minkov, Dr Jan te Nijenhuis, Prof Helmuth Nyborg; Senor Davide Piffer, MSc; Dr Vesa Tikkanen, Prof Dimitri Van der Linden, Dr Michael Woodley of Menie and Dr Merve zer. I would also like to thank Mr Huw Gruffydd for supplying me with a photograph of J. Philippe Rushton and the Ulster Institute for Social Research and the Veritas Fund for funding the research which led to this book.

Edward Dutton

26th June 2018, Oulu, Finland.

Blessed is the man that finds wisdom,

the man that gains understanding,

for she is more profitable than silver,

and yields better returns than gold.

She is more precious than rubies;

and nothing you desire can compare to her.

Proverbs 3: 13-15

Chapter One

A Modern Day Galileo?

1. Tickets, please!

On a grey winters morning in 1964, a red double decker bus coughed up a smog of exhaust and pulled out of the bus stop on the Streatham High Road in south London. It began to edge its way through the rush hour traffic, past Pratts, the department store, and up the hill of mid-nineteenth century, red-brick, four storey buildings; gables and arches at the top, butchers and grocers at the bottom. The slender, jet-haired bus conductor no more than about 20-years-old wearily commenced the ritual hed already gone through so many times that morning... and that year.

Tickets, please! He looked like most other bus conductors in London: average height, the same smart navy suit and peaked-cap, the same hand-cranked, clicking ticket machine strapped over his shoulder... though a few passengers might have noticed that he sounded different. Move on down inside, please! His voice had a higher pitch than that of other bus conductors. And he wasnt a Londoner. He wasnt really anything.