Richard Lynn is a famous British psychologist who is the founder of the theory of the relationship between the level of intelligence and This theory has found recognition in his circles, however, Lynn's openly racist statements are still the subject of controversy, and his works are considered controversial by many. However, regardless of public opinion, the work of this psychologist is recognized. Richard Lynn wrote many works on this and other topics, and one of the most famous is the book Evolution, Race and Intelligence.

early years

Richard Lynn was born in 1930 in Bristol, the son of scientist Cindy Harland. This botanist and geneticist was famous for his work on the genetics of cotton. However, he was separated from his father in early age when his parents divorced. Richard first met his father when he was nineteen years old. Harland then returned to Britain from South America to teach at the university. Lynn himself received an impressive education, including graduating from the prestigious Cambridge University. He worked as a psychology teacher, but gained his fame only in 1973. It was then that he wrote a review of one of the books that caused great resonance. In it, he expressed the idea that helping third world countries is pointless, since the population of these countries is much worse than ordinary white people, they are not adapted to this world, so there is no reason to spend money on helping them. It was then that Richard Lynn was first noticed by the public.

Increases in IQ scores among secular people

One of the first phenomena that Lynn worked on was sharp jumps in the level of intelligence in secular circles. As you can already see, the main topic that Richard Lynn studied in his life was intelligence. He was not the only one who worked on this theory, which is why the effect of increasing intelligence in secular people was called the “Flynn effect” in honor of another scientist. It is now standard and accepted in psychology, but some call it the Lynn-Flynn effect, since Richard also made important contributions to its study. However, it is unlikely that this scientist would have become so popular only because of these studies. The most main topic, thanks to which Richard Flynn became known throughout the world, is race.

Race and intelligence differences

In the late seventies, Lynn conducted a study in which he discovered that people living in Northeast Asia had, on average, six points more IQ than Europeans, who, in turn, were on average thirty points smarter than Africans. Over the course of his career, he published quite a bit of work on this topic, to the point where he studied African Americans and came to the conclusion that those African Americans whose skin color was lighter had higher IQ scores than those who had darker skin. He cited the fact that lighter-skinned African Americans have more European blood, which makes them smarter.

Naturally, his work was criticized everywhere, many scientists pointed out that they were extremely one-sided and did not take into account many other factors. However, of course, Lynn also had followers who agreed with everything that Richard Lynn wrote. Racial differences in intelligence have become a hot topic. Presenters scientific journals refused to publish his works, and a famous scientist was forced to resign from his job when he carelessly cited Lynn's works.

The connection between IQ and the wealth of nations

Richard Lynn, in one of his books, argued that differences in intelligence significantly affect the economies of countries. And in those countries where there is low GDP, he was able to find more low level intelligence of residents. Again, many people began to share the same opinion as Richard Lynn: racial differences in intelligence exist and directly affect many areas of life.

However, at the same time, a huge number of scientists expressed that the information from Lynn’s book is simply impossible to take seriously: the statistics given in it are unreliable, and there are gaps on almost every page that, if filled in, would completely destroy Lynn’s theory. So the scientist’s work was not recommended for reading and was considered frivolous and not sufficiently substantiated to be considered as something worthwhile in the world of serious science.

However, this did not stop the scientist from working further in the same direction. Richard Lynn wrote more than one book during his career. Races, peoples, intelligence - these were his main themes, and the principle always remained the same. He tried in every possible way to prove that a person's intelligence depends on his race and that the African race is the least intellectually developed.

Evolutionary analysis

However, the most striking and well-known book written by Richard Lynn is “Evolution, Race, Intelligence.” This was his most global work. It analyzes a huge amount of data collected from all over the world. In total, the book describes data taken from more than 800 thousand people. In a meta-analysis, Lynn is able to show that GPA People from East Asia have the highest IQs, followed by Europeans. As for Africans, the main subject of Lynn's research, they lag behind Europeans by an average of 32 points. In some cases, statistics show that Africans are more than 45 points more stupid than Europeans. It was thanks to this book, published in 2006, that Richard Lynn became famous throughout the world. “Evolution, Race, Intelligence” is a work that has attracted a lot of attention, but which still does not want to be taken seriously.

Difference in intelligence between men and women

As you already understand, Richard Lynn is an extremely controversial scientist. "Evolution, Race, Intelligence" is a book that caused a great stir in society. However, the connection between race and intelligence was not the scientist’s only (albeit favorite) topic. For example, at a certain stage of his career he tried to prove that men have higher intelligence than women, since it became known that their brain size ratio was also unequal. However, his theory was refuted by a large number of scientists.

Eugenics

Lynn also paid attention to eugenics, trying to highlight some of its main problems. He believed that humanity was experiencing a decline in health, intelligence, and conscientiousness. He singled out the progress of society as the reason for this. Lynn believed that natural selection acted in full force, but as society developed and medicine progressed, natural selection began to weaken, which explains the general decline in intelligence in society. He also reported that children with the most high level intelligence - the only ones in the family, while children from large families have lower IQ scores.

Present tense

Currently, Richard Lynn is a member of the large scientific foundation Pioneer Fund, which, largely due to Lynn's participation in it, was considered racist. However, on the other hand, the foundation sponsored many Scientific research, which otherwise might not have taken place at all. The last book Linna was published quite recently - in 2015. The scientist returned to his favorite topic again, only this time he concentrated on sports. The book is called Race and Sport: The Evolution and Racial Differences in Athletic Performance.

Heritage

No matter how controversial and racist Lynn's research may seem, his contributions to science and to the study of human intelligence are recognized and significant. Many scientists believe that the data that Lynn collected in his book Evolution, Race, Intelligence is more than impressive, and the book itself has had a major impact on the study of differences in human intelligence. But at the same time, many scientists still criticize him and constantly refute one or another of his arguments. He is accused of hiding research data that is objectionable to the scientist in order to provide the public only with information that corresponds to his beliefs. And these are not just thoughtless opponents, these are leading scientists who have their own confirmation of the facts. For example, it has been confirmed more than once that Lynn used data from an orphanage for mentally retarded children to derive the average level of intelligence of African countries. And this is not the only case, so it is quite difficult to take on faith the works that this scientist publishes.

R. Lynn's book impresses with the abundance of factual material. Moreover, there is no particular reason to believe that these facts have been falsified in any way. There is only one problem with the book: IQ is not at all a universal measure of intelligence. It reflects the ability to quickly count and remember numbers. What abilities can be expected from the Australian aborigines, who have never considered speed in their lives? Often with particular joy they consider the data according to which blacks in the United States have an IQ lower than Europeans, despite the fact that they seem to have lived in the same country for many generations. However, isn't it worth remembering that racial segregation in the United States was in full swing just a generation ago? What opportunities for intellectual development did blacks have back in the 1950s and 1960s? Meanwhile, there is also data according to which IQ in the same USA has increased over the 20th century among both Caucasians and Negroids. In the first half of the 20th century, Caucasians had an IQ almost the same as Negroids now, but then it grew. But it’s interesting: Negroids have a much higher rate of IQ growth than Caucasians. Therefore, IQ depends not so much on race, but on living conditions and environmental influences. The environment has become more complex, IQ has increased. But for Caucasians, conditions did not change so significantly, because they already lived in the dark, and for blacks it was a leap from a humble position to equality and even a little further (by the way, a leap “a little further” does not at all contribute to the development of intelligence, because if you can live for free due to the memories of oppression of grandparents, then why develop intelligence). There is also a wonderful fact: in the United States, Asians who recently arrived from China, Korea and Japan have the highest IQ - higher than that of Caucasians. However, in Russia, Chinese students studying at Moscow State University have, on average, rather modest successes. Obviously, the point is not in innate racial characteristics, but in the preliminary selection of those traveling to a particular country.

Rich excellent students who have already received a good education in their homeland, and those who remain are coming to us.

The inventors of this IQ have the highest IQ. Riding every day on the suburban train, reading comments on various news on the Internet, teaching students, I see that many, many representatives of the white race would also do well to improve their IQ.

The absurdity of discussions about “superior” and “inferior” races in a historical light is completely obvious. It’s good to talk about the beneficial effects of a cold climate and the difficulties of northern life on the intellect (the ideas are stale, the racists of the 19th century and the Nazis of the early 20th already developed these thoughts), but for some reason the achievements of the Africans of the “Middle Stone Age”, the Egyptians, the Sumerians, the creators of Harappan civilization, Bronze Age Vietnam. On the other hand, the game of the Bronze Age and the darkness of the Early Iron Age of Northern Europe (in comparison with the synchronous civilizations of the south) are well known. What does R. Lynn's reasoning about IQ have to do with it?

Racial differences in intelligence

Richard Lynn Racial differences in intelligence. Evolutionary analysis. / Per. from English Rumyantsev D.O. - M.: Profit Style, 2010. - 304 p.

ISBN 5-98857-157-3

ISBN 1-593680-21-Х (Washington Summit Publishers, 2006)

Table of contents
Chapter 1. The meaning and measurement of intelligence

Chapter 2 The meaning and formation of races

Chapter 3 Europeans

Chapter 4 Africans

Chapter 5 Bushmen and Pygmies

Chapter 6 South Asians and North Africa

Chapter 7 Aborigines of Southeast Asia

Chapter 8 Australian Aboriginals

Chapter 9 Aborigines of the Islands Pacific Ocean

Chapter 10 East Asians

Chapter 11 Arctic peoples

Chapter 12 American Indians

Chapter 13 Reliability and validity of racial differences in intelligence

Chapter 14 Environmental and Genetic Determinants of Racial Differences in Intelligence

Chapter 15 Evolution of Intelligence

Chapter 16 Climate, Race, Brain Size, and Intelligence

Chapter 17 The Evolution of Racial Differences in Intelligence

Appendix: Intelligence Tests

Bibliography

Name index

Subject index

^

Evolution, race and intelligence

Simplicity is worse than theft

(Russian folk proverb)

The factor of intelligence in the life of certain peoples and races has been repeatedly highlighted in legends and proverbs throughout history. There are countless examples of this. And the point is not necessarily that some are “better” or “worse” than others. The very specificity of mental activity in terms of style, as well as the dynamics of various psychological acts, has been noted in many written monuments since ancient times. In the sacred texts of world religions we easily find the same relationship, and the era of the “great geographical discoveries“Through the efforts of discoverers and missionaries, only confirmed the rule that in all parts of the world the attitude towards basic ethical values ​​is deeply different. The desires and interests of people everywhere are radically different. Some peoples and races with amazing tenacity over the centuries have shown us miracles of practical ingenuity and survival, considering this the highest good, others, on the contrary, treat such a strategy of behavior with undisguised contempt, preferring to create gigantic idealistic concepts. It is this diversity of manifestations of the highest nervous activity and gives us a magnificent palette of the greatness of the human race.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the sages have always tried to measure and explain the mental abilities of both individuals and entire tribes. Already in the first chronicle sources we can detect attempts to bring physical and mental signs of differences between people into a group system. Managing the first large empires and multicultural formations required administrators to switch from the imaginative thinking of poets to dry state statistics, since every ruler wanted to know what he had the right to expect from a new unknown people, who, by the will of the Gods, had fallen under the hand of his management. Legislative acts that have reached us Ancient Egypt and Babylon do not give us any opportunity to make a mistake in understanding this natural historical pattern. At the dawn of human development, various indirect indicators were initially used to determine the mental as well as moral preferences of the people: from quantities exhibited warriors, children in families, the size of cities and the fairness of laws, to grain reserves and attraction to certain crafts. As civilization developed, the system of evaluation criteria became more complex, but the same need remained unshakable, namely: in addition to emotional qualitative characteristics, to determine certain absolute parameters of mental abilities. The world's oldest system of examining young people for employment or educational establishments served precisely these purposes. Military ranks, awards, scientific degrees and public privileges have also at all times been intended to activate vital abilities in citizens, including intellect.

Thus, in connection with the universalization of existence and the principles of organizing community life in modern times, the need arose to unify the criteria for assessing the mental abilities of various branches of the human race. Global contacts automatically required each race to understand its place in the general world order, and the measurement of intelligence was a natural step towards general civilizational harmony.

The outstanding classic of natural science, Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), built the first scientific racial classification precisely on the trinity of manifestations of physical, mental and moral qualities, which prepared the basis for the emergence of the classical evolutionary theory. For it is quite obvious that in the process of progressive development, not only the physical shell of a person undergoes changes, but also its mental and moral content, which is developed as a set of adaptive reactions. But abstract man is a fiction, one of the greatest humanitarian delusions of the modern era. Every person by nature is a carrier of hereditary racial characteristics, which are inherently manifested in every type of his activity, including intellectual. Racial characteristics are a stamp that is easily recognizable on every historical act.

In this regard, the book by British professor Richard Lynn, offered to the Russian reader for the first time with the kind permission of the author, is a kind of crowning achievement of the main line of classical evolutionary theory, in which English School traditionally set the tone.

Today, both in the media and in scientific circles, it has become a kind of sign of good manners to criticize Charles Darwin and expose the alleged inconsistency of his theory. It is necessary to clearly answer biased critics that he never wrote anywhere that man in the literal sense of the word descended from a monkey. In addition, in his autobiography, the master repeatedly emphasized that he did not say anything new, but only systematized numerous concepts of natural science that existed before him.

Richard Lynn is Professor of Psychology at the University of Ulster in Dublin. He is one of the oldest (born in 1930) and most authoritative representatives of the classical British school of psychology. Much of his work is devoted to the study of intelligence. Among the main discoveries made by R. Lynn, it should be noted that the intelligence quotient (IQ) of the indigenous people of East Asia is on average 5 points higher than that of Europeans, regardless of the place of residence of the subjects. The author was also the first to show, initially in a Japanese population, that in the second half of the 20th century there was a steady increase in IQ scores through psychological tests. Subsequently, the universality of this phenomenon was shown, which was called the “Flynn effect” after the name of the researcher who studied this phenomenon in depth. The reason is considered to be improved living conditions economically. developed countries in the 20th century. Richard Lynn first showed (in 1994) that the intelligence of adult men is on average 4-5 points higher than that of women, which he attributes to the relatively smaller brain size of women. This fact initially caused a very violent reaction in scientific and public circles.

Among the major works of R. Lynn it is necessary to name the monographs “Dysgenics” (“Dysgenics”; Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996) and “Eugenics” (“Eugenics”; Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001), in which he provides data on the emerging deterioration of physical and mental health and intellectual abilities of the modern human population and evaluates possible methods of combating this threat. In the book “IQ and the Welfare of Nations” (co-authored with the Finnish scientist Tatu Vanhanen) - “IQ and the Wealth of Nations”; Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002) R. Lynn examines the problem of the dependence of differences in indicators of well-being and economic growth of nations on intelligence indicators. Based on the results of data analysis for 185 modern nations, the author convincingly shows the contribution of the IQ of each nation to the indicators of its economic well-being.

Since 1991, the main direction of R. Lynn's work has been the comparative study of the intelligence of peoples of different races. This book “Racial Differences in Intelligence. Evolutionary Analysis, published in 2006 (Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis; Augusta, Georgia: Washington Summit Books) is the result of approximately 25 years of work by the author. The preface to the book was written by a remarkable psychologist of the British school working in Canada, John Philippe Rushton, who is considered the largest specialist in the field of studying racial characteristics of psychology. He notes that R. Lynn entered a “minefield” in his research, since both initially and now supporters of hypertrophied “political correctness” do not agree to accept the results of his research. This is not surprising, since, according to another outstanding British thinker, Thomas Hobbes, “if geometric axioms affected the interests of people, they would be refuted.” The name of R. Lynn could easily be placed under the words spoken by another outstanding scientist of our time, Nobel laureate, who deciphered the structure of DNA, James Watson: “Honesty is good for this world, it makes the world work more efficiently.”

Based on his own research and analysis of more than 500 works by other authors, carried out from the beginning of the entry of psychological tests into the arsenal of psychology to the present day, R. Lynn demonstrates the peculiarities of intelligence of representatives of all human races(more than a hundred nations and nationalities) and assesses the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to these differences. The author proposes a model for the evolution of observed racial differences in intelligence. Despite the fact that R. Lynn's work represents the most complete set of data on the problem to date, the book is very compact. The author presents his thoughts in a fairly accessible language; in most cases, understanding them does not require an in-depth preliminary study of psychology or evolutionary biology. Good subject and author indexes allow the reader to quickly find the information they need.

His work is the most comprehensive and recent analysis (the book was published in 2006) of data from studies of racial characteristics of intelligence. Intelligence measures are compared with other psychological and biometric characteristics, and a number of explanations for racial differences in intelligence are proposed, including the influence genetic factors and habitats. The author proposes his own theory of the evolution of human intelligence.

No books on racial differences in intelligence have been published in Russia, except for some hard-to-find journal publications in the 1920s. XX century.

The studies analyzed by R. Lynn use a variety of IQ tests to measure intelligence. Some of these tests are currently widely used in our country to solve practical problems(eg Raven's progressive matrices), while others are completely unknown. Getting acquainted with R. Lynn's book will help expand the tools of domestic psychologists. In addition, the practice of working with IQ tests in our country today is far from perfect. After a long break caused by the defeat of testology in the 1930s, the culture of this practice was lost. Currently, a huge number of, to put it mildly, low-quality, psychodiagnostic tests are used and psychodiagnostics is not used to solve large-scale problems, for example in the field of education.

In order to put everything in its place and bring some sense to the increasingly active critics of evolutionism, we believe it is necessary to shed some light on the history of the issue.

It was the British who were the pioneers who, in the era of “great geographical discoveries,” were for the first time able to draw purely pragmatic conclusions and systematize a body of knowledge about “exotic” countries. Founded in 1660 in England, the Royal Society served the purpose of promoting science and its practical application taking into account racial differences among the indigenous populations of new continents.

Let us list the names of scientific geniuses in this field.

John Bulwer (1606-1656) laid the foundations of raciology, creating a systematic description of human biotypes with their characteristic physical and mental characteristics. Thomas Willis (1621-1675) was the first to describe anatomy and physiology nervous system humans and animals. John Ray (1627-1705) formulated the principles scientific classification race Edward Tyson (1650-1708) gave a detailed comparative description of the morphological structure of the orangutan, black and European in all the details of the skeleton, muscle tissue and skin. John Hunter (1728-1793) pioneered the creation of craniology and, at the same time, developed a philosophical understanding of the racial problem. Charles White (1728-1813) formulated the principles of racial surgery. Sir William Lawrence (1783-1867) laid the foundation for comparative anatomy and medical ethics in its modern sense. The name of such a scientist as James Cowles Prichard (1786-1848) is associated with the formation of a new independent science - ethnology.

James Hunt (1833-1869) founded the first English Anthropological Society, and Robert Knox (1791-1862) created the doctrine of “transcendental anatomy”, according to which all living things are structured in a similar way due to universal unity biological functions. It was this concept that replaced the theological idea of ​​God's plan and laid the anatomical basis for evolutionary theory.

Developing the ideas of Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) gave a modern form to the classification of races, and Alfred Russel Walles (1823-1913) formulated the global principles of biogeography. Finally, John Beddoe (1826-1911) brought to anthropology statistical methods and thus finally turned it into an exact science. Edward Burnett Taylor (1832-1917) in turn substantiated the doctrine of the “scale of civilization” and proposed using it to measure different cultures. Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) immortalized his name with the creation of eugenics - the science of improving the human race. Alfred Cort Haddon (1855-1940) made the principles of English physical anthropology universal, because it was at this time that throughout to the globe the creation of a single unified methodology for racial measurements begins. Karl Pearson (1857-1936) created biometrics and laid the foundations of modern statistics, thanks to which many branches of natural science, including the gigantic corpus of human sciences, received a powerful mathematical apparatus for planning research and processing their results. Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955) created the theory of the hereditary hormonal origin of racial differences and the origin of modern races from different ancestors in different geographical areas and at different times. Sir Grafton Elliot Smith (1871-1937), using the latest methods, studied the neurological and psychophysiological characteristics of races in the context of the development of their cultures. William Halse Rivers Rivers (1864-1922) created color and pain sensitivity for representatives of different races, which finally provided a biological basis for the reasons for the diversity of cultures. John Randal Baker (1900-1984) formulated a large-scale universal concept of biological criteria for assessing the independence of cultures.

This list of great English natural scientists indicates only some of the tips of that gigantic worldview iceberg, which is based on the deep archetypal idea that everything in this world has specific differences that need to be able to be measured. Thus, the main fundamental book of Professor Richard Lynn today crowns the centuries-old glorious tradition of the development of English natural science in this area, which is its enduring value.

Knowledge of the material presented in the book is necessary, in our opinion, for the widest sections of the reading audience in Russia: from psychologists, sociologists, philosophers to politicians, intelligence officers and law enforcement. This information is also useful for criminologists, doctors and teachers. In the conditions of multinational and multiracial Russia, it is an objective analysis of the intelligence of citizens that will help nip any conflicts in the bud and make the most rational use of the country’s gene pool for the purpose of its prosperity. Being naively intoxicated by the illusions of equality, we have already lost our great country and therefore we no longer have the historical right to repeat this catastrophe, which, as we remember, was accompanied by wars almost along the entire perimeter former USSR, the death of thousands of innocent citizens, and the forced migration of millions of compatriots.

Wars are generated by forgetting the need for differences, when some try to impose their values ​​on others. On the contrary, a civilized, balanced account of the diversity of the planet’s gene pool will help us maintain peace in the context of globalization.

In conclusion, I would like to note another important fact that prompted us to translate and publish this book in Russian. In the media, on television and in newspapers in our country, the idea is often, even if implicitly, conveyed about the centuries-old hostility of the British towards Russia. Mr. Richard Lynn is not only a genuine world-class scientist, but also a classic gentleman, as well as a sincere and uncompromising lover of Russian culture.

All of the above factors are quite enough, in our opinion, for this book to take its rightful place on the shelves bookstores, libraries and on the desks of all thinking citizens of the Russian Federation.
Member of the Writers' Union of the Russian Federation V. B. Avdeev

Doctor of Philology A. A. Grigoriev

Candidate of Biological Sciences D. O. Rumyantsev

Russian Intellectual and Cognitive Resource

"VELESOVA SLOBODA"

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Racial differences in intelligence - description and summary, by Lynn Richard, read free online at electronic library ParaKnig.me

The factor of intelligence in the life of certain peoples and races has been repeatedly highlighted in legends and proverbs throughout history. There are countless examples of this. And the point is not necessarily that some are “better” or “worse” than others. The very specificity of mental activity in terms of style, as well as the dynamics of various psychological acts, has been noted in many written monuments since ancient times. In the sacred texts of world religions we easily find the same relationship, and the era of “great geographical discoveries” through the efforts of discoverers and missionaries only confirmed the rule that in all parts of the world the attitude towards basic ethical values ​​is deeply different. The desires and interests of people everywhere are radically different. Some peoples and races with amazing tenacity over the centuries have shown us miracles of practical ingenuity and survival, considering this the highest good, others, on the contrary, treat such a strategy of behavior with undisguised contempt, preferring to create gigantic idealistic concepts. It is this diversity of manifestations of higher nervous activity that gives us a magnificent palette of the greatness of the human race.

Dedicated to Joyce

Sei il mio amor y tutta la mia vita

(You are my love and my whole life)

Mimi – G. Puccini, La Bohème, Act V

(Translated from English: A.A. Grigoriev)

Dear Russian reader! I am glad that my book was published in Russia and that our kindred Russian people will be able to become acquainted with the views expressed in it on racial differences in intelligence. I have summarized the results of several hundred studies showing that we Europeans, along with the East Asian peoples (Chinese, Japanese and Koreans), have the highest intelligence. This may be considered obvious. Almost all the discoveries in science and technology have been made over the past two and a half thousand years by our peoples, the peoples of Europe and East Asia, and they have created almost all the great works visual arts, music and literature. In the second part of the book I offer an explanation for this. I believe that our ancestors had to live in harsh conditions during the last ice age, when only those with high intelligence could survive. Now, however, the future of our peoples is in danger. The number of children born to us is not enough to maintain the size of our populations. How do we solve this problem? Can we survive? Or will peoples with lower intelligence take our place? I leave the reader to judge these important questions.

Richard Lynn

University of Ulster

Evolution, race and intelligence

Simplicity is worse than theft

(Russian folk proverb)

The factor of intelligence in the life of certain peoples and races has been repeatedly highlighted in legends and proverbs throughout history. There are countless examples of this. And this is not at all about the fact that some are “better” or “worse” than others. The very specificity of mental activity in terms of style, as well as the dynamics of various mental acts, has been noted in many written monuments since ancient times. In the sacred texts of world religions, we easily find the same relationship, and the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, through the efforts of discoverers and missionaries, only confirmed the rule that in all parts of the world the attitude towards basic ethical values ​​is deeply different. The desires and interests of people everywhere differ radically. Some peoples and races with amazing tenacity over the centuries have shown us miracles of practical ingenuity and survival, considering this the highest good, others, on the contrary, treat such a strategy of behavior with undisguised contempt, preferring to create gigantic theoretical constructions. It is this diversity of manifestations of higher mental activity that gives us a magnificent palette of the greatness of the human race.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the sages have always tried to measure and explain the presence of mental abilities both in individuals and in entire tribes. Already in the first chronicle sources we can detect attempts to bring physical and mental characteristics of people’s differences into a group system. Managing the first large empires and multicultural formations required administrators to switch from the imaginative thinking of poets to dry state statistics, since every ruler wanted to know what he had the right to expect from a new unknown people, who, by the will of the gods, had fallen under the hand of his management. The legislative acts of Ancient Egypt and Babylon that have reached us testify to this natural historical pattern. At the dawn of human development, various indirect indicators were initially used to determine the mental as well as moral preferences of the people: from the number of soldiers on display, children in families, the size of cities and the fairness of laws to grain reserves and attraction to certain crafts. As civilization developed, the system of evaluation criteria became more complex, but the same need remained unshakable, namely: in addition to emotional qualitative characteristics, to determine certain absolute parameters of mental abilities. The world's oldest system of examining young people for employment or educational institutions served precisely these purposes. Military ranks, awards, scientific degrees and public privileges have also at all times been intended to activate mental abilities, including intelligence, in citizens.

In connection with the universalization of existence and the principles of organizing community life in modern times, a need arose to unify the criteria for assessing the mental abilities of various branches of the human race. Global contacts automatically required each race to understand its place in the general world order, and the measurement of intelligence was a natural step towards general civilizational harmony.

Carl Linnaeus

The outstanding classic of natural science, Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), based the first scientific racial classification precisely on the trinity of manifestations of physical, mental and moral qualities, which prepared the basis for the emergence of classical evolutionary theory. For it is quite obvious that in the process of progressive development, not only the physical shell of a person undergoes changes, but also its mental and moral content, which is developed as a set of adaptive reactions. But abstract man is a fiction, one of the greatest humanitarian delusions of the modern era. Every person by nature is a carrier of hereditary racial characteristics, which are inherently manifested in every type of his activity, including intellectual. Racial characteristics are a stamp that is easily recognizable on every historical act.

In this regard, the book by British professor Richard Lynn, offered to the Russian reader for the first time with the kind permission of the author, is a kind of crowning achievement of the main line of classical evolutionary theory, in which the English school has traditionally set the tone.

Today, when both in the media and in scientific circles it has become a kind of sign of good manners to criticize Charles Darwin and expose the alleged inconsistency of his theory, it is necessary to clearly answer biased critics that he never wrote anywhere that a person in the literal sense of this the word originated from the monkey. In addition, in his autobiography, the master repeatedly emphasized that he did not say anything new, but only systematized numerous concepts of natural science that existed before him.

Charles Darwin

Richard Lynn is Professor of Psychology at the University of Ulster in Dublin. He is one of the oldest (born in 1930) and most authoritative representatives of the classical British school of psychology. Much of his work is devoted to the study of intelligence. Among the main discoveries made by R. Lynn, it should be noted that the intelligence quotient (IQ) of native East Asians is on average 5 points higher than that of Europeans, regardless of the place of residence of the subjects. The author also showed for the first time, initially in a Japanese population, that in the second half of the 20th century there was a steady increase in the results of psychometric IQ assessments. Subsequently, the universality of this phenomenon was shown, which was called the “Flynn effect” after the name of the researcher who studied it in depth. The reason is considered to be the improvement of living conditions in economically developed countries in the 20th century. Richard Lynn has shown that the intelligence of adult men is on average 4–5 points higher than that of women, which he attributes to the relatively smaller size of their brains. This fact initially caused a very violent reaction in scientific and public circles.