What Is Intelligence? by Thomas Sowell

One of the longest-running controversies in history has been that between those who believe intelligence to be inherited and those who see it as determined by environment.

If time has not resolved that question, it has at least led to sharper definitions of the question and a muting of some of the dogmatism among those on both sides of this issue.

The eugenics movement of the early 20th century was based on the fear that, since people of lower mental ability tended to have more children than people of higher mental ability, the average level of the nation's intelligence would tend to decline over time.

It is hard to escape the logic of that argument. But that logic could be its undoing.

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