40 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen Jay GouldThe Mismeasure Of Man
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Introduction-Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary: Introduction to the Revised and Expanded Edition: “Thoughts at Age Fifteen”
In Gould’s introduction to his revised and expanded edition of The Mismeasure of Man, the author outlines the frame of his original work and also provides the rationale for revising his book after fifteen years. His original intent in 1981 was to refute the argument that intelligence “can be meaningfully abstracted as a single number capable of ranking all people on a linear scale of intrinsic and unalterable mental worth” (20). Gould explains that his critique of leading theorists and theories of measurable, heritable intelligence rests on combining his expertise in data analysis with his interest in tracing the historical contexts of biological determinism, resulting in a book that will remain relevant to popular audiences.
In his original work, Gould addressed the “timeless and timely” topic of measurable intelligence, whose popularity has historically appeared in episodic cycles (26). In 20th-century America, the first of these cycles arrived in the form of IQ testing in the 1920s, and was followed by the 1969 publication of Arthur Jensen’s article “How Much Can We Boost IQ and Achievement?” However, after the “remarkable impact” of Herrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve (1994), Gould revised his own work in order to rebut their 
