James R. Flynn - Academic Work

Academic Work

Flynn has written eight books. His research interests include humane ideals and ideological debate, classics of political philosophy, and race, class and IQ (see race and intelligence). His books combine political and moral philosophy with psychology to examine problems such as justifying humane ideals and whether it makes sense to rank races and classes by merit. He is currently a member of the editorial board of Intelligence. and on the Honorary International Advisory Editorial Board of the Mens Sana Monographs.

Flynn defines intelligence to be independent of culture, emphasizing that the style of thought required to deal with problems of survival in a desert (mapping, tracking..), is different from that required to do well in the modern West (academic achievement etc.), but that both undoubtedly require intelligence.

A 1999 article published in American Psychologist, summarizes much of his research. On the alleged genetic inferiority of Blacks on IQ tests, he lays out the argument and evidence for such a belief, and then contests each point. He interprets the direct evidence—when Blacks are raised in settings that are less disadvantageous—as suggesting that environmental factors explain genetic differences. And yet, he argues that the environmental explanation gained force after the discovery that IQ scores were rising over time. Inter-generational IQ differences among Whites and across nations were larger than the Black-White IQ Gap and could not be accounted for by genetic factors, which, if anything, should have reduced IQ, according to scholars he references. He posits that the Black-White IQ score gap can be entirely explained by environmental factors if "the average environment for Blacks in 1995 matches the quality of the average environment for Whites in 1945." He summarizes his rejection of the theory that Blacks are genetically inferior to Whites by stating that "Nothing at present coerces rational belief."

Flynn is transparent about his belief in racial equality in his work, but he advocates for open scientific debate about controversial social science claims. He only urges those who hold such beliefs to refrain from advancing them without solid evidence.

Flynn's 2010 book The Torchlight List proposes the controversial idea that a person can learn more from reading great works of literature than they can from going to university.