[junko]

>>And the grandparent is right: you'd better be ready with a philosophy that accepts that reality on its own terms.

This makes me despair. How many times must history repeat itself?

You may be able to acknowledge just the difference, but I stick to what I said earlier: it's a slippery slope. And I'm not talking about dissimilarities in physical features like Irish vs Kenyan legs, but things like comparing intelligence in different races opens up Pandora's Box. Intelligence is not the only factor that makes up who we are, but it is easily and so often turned into a debate where it seems that it's the only thing that matters.

[dionidium]

The discovery that one group is on average less intelligent than another needn't imply any particular policy anymore than the discovery that you're smarter than me implies that you and I should be afforded differing rights on that basis.

[dionidium]

Also, let's be clear about the type of philosophy I mean. I mean one that affords all people the same basic rights, the position that none of our differences are so large as to justify preferential treatment, the position that our similarities are self-evident and sufficient.