Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cbmvax!bpa!sjuvax!tmoody From: tmoody@sjuvax.UUCP (T. Moody) Newsgroups: sci.psychology Subject: Re: Society for extremely gifted people? Message-ID: <1211@sjuvax.UUCP> Date: 19 Mar 88 03:50:18 GMT References: <7550@apple.Apple.Com> <7692@apple.Apple.Com> <811@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> Reply-To: tmoody@sjuvax.UUCP (T. Moody) Organization: St. Joseph's University, Phila. PA. Lines: 30 In article <811@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> arti@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Arti Nigam) writes: > >I wonder if you have some references or can give me the data on >correlations between aptitude test performance and future eminence. >What exactly is eminence? Not only is that the right question to ask, but I believe it points to a further conclusion. If intelligence tests are useful as indicators of future eminence, then *present* (and perhaps even past) eminence ought to be at least as useful. That is, test scores ought logically to be a sufficient but not necessary condition of entry into a society that values them only insofar as they predict something else. I admit that I was one a member of one of these societies, the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry. I joined because my ego was in a bad condition and because I thought the activity of the Society might have something to do with philosophy. The ISPE, according to its rhetoric, purported to be a society of people interested in test scores only insofar as they predict real *achievement*. So, I presented the argument that *actual* achievement ought to be a better indicator than any test score, and that the admissions criteria should be widened. The members of the society wanted none of this because, despite the rhetoric, what they really wanted was an exclusive *IQ* society. This didn't seem very philosophical to me, so I quit. -- Todd Moody * {allegra|astrovax|bpa|burdvax}!sjuvax!tmoody * SJU Phil. Dept. "The wind is not moving. The flag is not moving. Mind is moving."