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Duke :: Philosophy :: Faculty :: Robert N Brandon


	Professor

	Department Chair


Areas:	Philosophy of Science Philosophy of Biology Logic

Office:	209 West Duke Bldg
Phone:	+1·919·660·3067, +1 919-660-3050
Fax:	+1 919-660-3060
E-mail:	rbrandon@duke.edu

Robert N. Brandon (Ph.D. 1979, Harvard) joined the Duke Faculty in fall of 1979. He holds a joint appointment in Philosophy and Biology . He has published articles in Philosophy of Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Biology and Philosophy, PSA 1980 and PSA 1982, some of which have subsequently been anthologized. He has co-edited (with Richard Burian) Genes, Organisms, Populations: Controversies over the Units of Selection (Bradford Books, MIT Press, 1984), and his book, Adaptation and Environment was published by Princeton University Press in 1990. His most recent book Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology (Cambridge) was published in 1996. During the spring of 1984 he had a visiting appointment at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh. Brandon is a member of Duke's Center for the Philosophy of Biology .

I think it would be interesting to compare Conservatives' average SAT scores against Liberals' average SAT scores.

The key word is AVAILABLE. They hire the "best, smartest people available." Could be that the best and smartest do not wish to work in academia. The best, smartest professor I had in college is conservative. He is brilliant.

P.S. It seem this a$$ operates on the premise that people are intelligent because they are Liberal. I operate on the premise that we are Conservative because we are intelligent.

Well, smugness is a characteristic of this particular demographic, and this guy has it in spades.

What he's suggesting is that the intelligence gradient acts as the principal selection pressure in determining group membership. It does not. This particular group is self-selecting, and selection pressures come from deliberate volitional acts by its members, not from any "tendency" toward intelligence. In short, they're liberal because that's who liberals hire.

Since Bush's tax cuts were all for the wealthy, which all vote Republican, we must all be rich and stupid. How did all us idjuts get to be so gawldang rich?

Well, thanks to my free and anonymous mail account at Yahoo!, I have sent off my reply to Brandon:

Because you have deliberately misrepresented what John Stuart Mill stated in the 19-Century, or are ignorant of the political facts regarding the statement you quoted recently while claiming that "liberals" are smarter than "conservatives" and the American public in general, I have decided to inform you so that you may offer a public admission and apology.
First you state "We try to hire the best, smartest people available. If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire." You are obviously unaware (unless you are deliberately lying to those whom you feel are your inferiors) that Mill deeply distrusted the idea of inherited status, such as the British aristocracy possessed, and was instead much more free-market oriented. He also would have been appalled at the fascistic speech codes left-wingers have applied to the nation's campuses. He would have been much more in favor of the views of Ronald Reagan and William Rehnquist than you or any other left-winger, as the ideas behind the labels "liberal" and "conservative" have undergone a nearly-complete reversal from the 19th- to the 20th-/21st-Centuries.
Then you stated "Mill's analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia." This is your elitist way of saying that Republicans are too dumb to work in academia, and also that the public is even more dumb than the Republicans because they vote for them. And then you people have the unmitigated gall to attack others as being elitists!
I work in the academic field. In fact, I help raise money to pay for the programs, scholarships, and professorships at one of the nation's leading universities. I know from experience that the alumni who create businesses or otherwise succeed in the real world, and in turn make the gifts that pay your salary, are for the most part free-marketers who are much more likely to vote Republican than Democrat (and that is based on the political contributions listed on various proprietary databases that I use in my job).
You are a perfect example of the arrogant, elitist, left-wingers that cannot understand the hypocrisy of championing admissions and scholarship preferences based solely on skin color and not the content of the applicant's character, and then turn around and howl over the satirical yet informative affirmative action bake sales that have become a favorite form of street theater among American students.
You are a perfect example of someone who cannot succeed in the real world while you sit comfortably in your tenured little fascist kingdom and pontificate on subjects of which you have no knowledge.
You are a perfect example of why Americans no longer respect or trust academics as we once did.
I look forward to reading of you admission of ignorance regarding John Stuart Mill or your deliberate misrepresentation, and your apology to Americans everywhere for your ignorant, elitist, and incorrect statement.

Although I love to teach, I couldn't stomach the paycut. I'll stick to teaching a night course at the local UC or Cal State.

Substitute any MINORITY where the word CONSERVATIVE appears and we would have a MAJOR NATIONAL scandal on our hands with EVERY PRESS/MEDIA outlet in the country going apoplectic 24/7. There would be another Congressional investigation and Hollywood would make a movie about it!!

I for one, find myself in agreement with the professor!

Conservatives are generally stupid!

We stupidly believe that our dignity and principles have an intrinsic value which should not be sold to the government in exchange for a little more supposed security.

We stupidly believe that a dollar earned is worth ten pilfered from other hard working individuals.

We stupidly place our faith in the wisdom of the common man making free and open choices.

We may be stupid, but at least we can take comfort that we live our lives in honor and not as as some two-bit sycophant who constantly has figure out what his boss thinks before he can develop his own opinion.

Finally, we are stupid enough to believe that as individuals we are responsible for our own happiness. Now for a stupid question. When is the last time you saw a happy liberal?