Science and Sex
In April of 2005, shortly after Larry Summers’ public comments which resulted in his resignation as president of Harvard, there was a debate between Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke, both from the Harvard psychology department, on “The Science of Gender and Science.” Streaming video, a transcript, and slides from this debate are available on Edge – here. There are also comments on the debate by Nora Newcomb, David Haig, Alison Gopnik and Diane Halpern, with a response by Pinker — here.
The question under debate was whether innate differences between the sexes might help account for the dearth of women tenure track faculty in the physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering at elite universities. At the beginning of his remarks, Steven Pinker made what seems to me to be a vital distinction:
[I]t is crucial to distinguish the moral proposition that people should not be discriminated against on account of their sex — which I take to be the core of feminism — and the empirical claim that males and females are biologically indistinguishable. They are not the same thing. Indeed, distinguishing them is essential to protecting the core of feminism. Anyone who takes an honest interest in science has to be prepared for the facts on a given issue to come out either way. And that makes it essential that we not hold the ideals of feminism hostage to the latest findings from the lab or field. . . . The truth cannot be sexist.
The debate proceeded mainly on empirical grounds, although there were also a few philosophical moments. Elizabeth Spelke is the 2009 winner of the Jean Nicod Prize. Steven Pinker is author of The Blank Slate, among many other books, and is married to Rebecca Goldstein.
–Paul