This is a comparison of claims made against Raymond B. Cattell versus what Cattell actually wrote.  It reveals major distortions of Cattell’s words by his critics.  The two critics are:

1. William H. Tucker, in his book The Science of Politics and Racial Research, University of Illinois Press, 1994.  In Section 1 below we examine Tucker statements one by one, along with the original text from Cattell.
   
2. Barry Mehler, in his article "Beyondism: Raymond B. Cattell and the new eugenics" in Genetica (99, pp 153-163, 1997).  In Section 2 below we examine Mehler's statements.  Mehler attacks Cattell more extensively on the Internet, but since those statements can be reworded at any time, we use the article here, despite its more limited content.

No claims are made here about why Mehler and Tucker have misrepresented Cattell, or whether it is intentional.  However, it is clear that the following claims go far beyond what Cattell actually said.

Likewise, no claims are made here that Cattell views are "politically correct".  In particular, his views in the 1930's are not, by today's standards, but as noted below, they were common among his contemporaries.  And Cattell's views in later life were controversial, in any case.  Again, our claim is only that critics have seriously distorted his position.

1.1 Tucker's Statements On page 243 of his 1994 book, Tucker claims: “Although Cattell was disappointed with the traditional moral resources of his own country, the Third Reich gave him reason to be more hopeful. … In 1937 he praised the Reich, ‘where eugenic laws were instantly put into operation,’ and for ‘being the first to adopt sterilisation together with a positive emphasis on racial improvement.’” (quoted from Cattell’s book The Fight for our National Intelligence, 1937.) Tucker's text certainly sounds damning for Cattell, given the Third Reich’s subsequent practices with sterilisation

Actual context from Cattell

Cattell does not reference the "Third Reich" in his book. He references Germany, and he mentions other countries in the same context. The entire paragraph must be examined carefully to understand what he meant (page 141):

“The coming of eugenic competition between nations is certain in the near future. Attention to quantity of population is the infancy of an idea which will grow till it becomes a jealous care of quality… Germany has the credit of being the first to adopt sterilisation together with a positive emphasis on racial improvement. The Scandinavian countries, Holland and Switzerland are equally advanced in their practice of sterilisation and their consciousness of the need for maintaining and improving inherited qualities. Actually the U.S.A. seems to have been the first country in which sterilisation has been legalised…”

From Cattell’s references to other Scandinavian countries, Holland, Switzerland and the U.S.A. in addition to Germany, and his comment about quantity of population, he is clearly not referring to the Third Reich’s horrible legacy.  Tucker has twisted Cattell’s words by turning an isolated reference to Germany into “the Third Reich” and “Nazi sterilization”.

Also, to understand Cattell’s reference to “care of quality” above, it is important to know that the first half of Cattell’s book is a presentation of population studies showing a reverse correlation between intelligence and birth rate in England.  Cattell expressed concern that average intelligence is declining because the least intelligent are not practicing birth control, and the most intelligent are putting their time into endeavors other than child-bearing.  Cattell never alluded to any involuntary measures, in this book or any of his books over the subsequent 50 years of his life.  He does advocate free and legal availability of birth control.

On page 96 of Psychology and the Religious Quest, Cattell states:

Cattell would clearly find abhorrent the Nazi extermination of these people.

1.2 Tucker's Statements On page 239 Tucker quotes racial comparisons in Cattell’s book Psychology and Social Progress (pages 4-45, 59, 87), for example: “Nordics were ‘the most highly evolved in intelligence and stability of temperament'” and “Mediterraneans were vain, gregarious, and unassertive, tending naturally to be conquered or enslaved”.

Actual context from Cattell

It is true that Cattell comments on average traits of different races, but Tucker’s quotations of Cattell are misleading in two important ways:

1. Cattell has to be judged in the context of the time.  Consider that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, yet we remember him and even revere him for his beliefs in freedom that were revolutionary for their time.  In 1933 when Cattell made his comments, beliefs in racial differences were widely held.  Contemporaries such as Bertrand Russell, H.G. Wells, and Aldous Huxley influenced Cattell and made analogous statements. Even Barry Mehler acknowledges in his attack (p 159 of his 1997 article) that "Cattell's contempt ... was common among European intellectuals of the period... Neitzche, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, and W.B. Yeats".
   
2. Tucker uses Cattell’s quotes out of context.  He mentions only the positive traits that Cattell attributes to Northern Europeans and the negative traits that Cattell attributes to other races.  Cattell remarks on superior mathematical ability exhibited by middle eastern races, the sociability and social sympathy of blacks, the leadership and drive of Jews, and the adaptability and better showing on examinations of the Japanese (pages 46-49).
   

1.3 Tucker's Statements On page 245 Tucker quotes Cattell in Psychology and the Religious Quest (page 149): '… the Atlantic democracies are bewildered, envious and hostile at the rise of Germany, Italy, and Japan, countries in which individuals have disciplined their indulgences as to a religious purpose…' and proceeds to makes conclusions such as “Cattell found much to admire in the Third Reich”  and “Nazis and the fascists provided a beacon of moral light, a model of evolutionary progress to be emulated.”

Actual context from Cattell

Again, Tucker is deceptive using these quotes out of context. Cattell never advocated the actions taken by Germany, Italy, or Japan.  Tucker does not cite a single quote in any of Cattell’s books that actually advocates these countries’ actions, and Cattell never mentions Nazis or the Third Reich, while Tucker explicitly states Cattell’s support for them.

In the very next sentence after the one Tucker quotes (page 149) Cattell says

In his book, Cattell is studying how a group of individuals act as a single collective mind or personality, which Cattell calls the “Theopsyche”.  Cattell is saying that Germany, Italy, and Japan are not representing the collective will of the people in the way that they should.

1.4 Tucker's Statements On page 247 Tucker implies that Cattell advocates genocide, writing “Losing races in the evolutionary competition, Cattell said, had to give way to their betters and ‘genocide, like individual death, is the only way of clearing space.’” (quoted from Cattell, “Ethics and the Social Sciences: the Beyondist Solution”, Mankind Quarterly 19 (1978) p 305-308.)

Actual context from Cattell

Cattell does not advocate genocide.  Cattell’s full quote in context is:

Again, Cattell's words have been distorted: he's simply saying that various groups naturally die out in evolution.  In fact, Cattell argues against genocide by man, asserting that a diversity of cultures, countries, and genetic groups has been and remains important to man’s evolutionary survival:

1.5 Tucker's Statements On page 240 of his book,Tucker intersperses his own words between Cattell quotes from Psychology and Social Progress, adding meaning well beyond Cattell’s intent: “That is, qualities like ‘sympathy, selflessness, self-sacrifice, and the capacity for enthusiastic co-operation’ were morally sound only when employed to help one’s own race survive and flourish.  Any attempt to extend inter-racial kindnesses to people of an ‘alien’ race was an ‘abominable state of affairs’”

Actual context from Cattell

Cattell does say that in evolutionary competition, intra-group cooperation would take priority over inter-group cooperation.  However, he is stating this as a fact of nature, not his own moral judgment.  Cattell also says (page 96-97 of Psychology and the Religious Quest) that

In other words, Cattell says there is value to cooperation within a family, a tribe, a country, and the entire human race. On page 143 he praises shared values across the entire human race:

2.1 Mehler's Statements Turn now to Barry Mehler's attacks on Cattell (in Genetica 99, 1997).  On page 153 Mehler quotes Cattell as saying: “Hitler actually shared many values of the average American. He aimed at full employment, family values, and raising the standard of living, and countless other things, including the Volkswagen, which he designed himself for the average family.” (from Cattell, The Beyondist, 1994, p.2) With this quote taken out of context, Mehler is implying that Cattell supports Hitler's values, and thinks that Hitler had American values.

Actual context from Cattell

The actual quote in context from Cattell is:

By eliding Cattell's statement that Hitler was evil, Mehler has completely distorted Cattell's position.  Cattell is arguing that eugenics can be used for both good and evil purposes.  He is arguing that eugenics isn't evil, just as the Volkswagen isn't evil, simply by association with an evil man.  He is arguing that eugenics has been tainted by Hitler's horrible legacy, but that we can also use eugenics for good (and we do so, e.g. in prenatal screening for genetic defects).

2.2 Mehler's Statements Mehler claims (p157): “Cattell openly supported fascism in the 1930s. While British eugenists of the 1930s were often critical of Nazi eugenics and especially of Nazi race science, Raymond Cattell was generally an enthusiastic supporter. As William Tucker points out, Cattell gave due acknowledgement, not only to Gunther, but even to Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau.”

Actual context from Cattell

Cattell does not "openly support fascism" nor "enthusiastically support Nazi race science" in his books, and Cattell's reference to Gunther and Gobineau is not as a supporter.  These are simply citations to other authors' observations on the historical racial makeup of aristocracies on various continents:


This quote appears in a section entitled Hereditary Aristocracies, in which Cattell is examining the hereditary context of upper classes in various countries.  As noted earlier, many of Cattell's comments would be politically incorrect today, but were common in his time.

2.3 Mehler's Statements Mehler states (p157): “Cattell blithely speaks of German colonial policy as the 'annihilation ... of backward and obstreperous savages' by machine gun which he contrasted favorably with the less effective, but still useful, British method of destruction of primitive tribes by 'lethal ideas' ”

Actual context from Cattell

Cattell does not "favorably contrast" machine gun annihilation in his book!  Quite the opposite.  The full quote in context is (1937, page 137):


Cattell argues that the British and Americans annhilated groups in more subtle ways than the Germans.  But if anything, he then argues that new ideas of lifestyle and contraception would be a more humane way to reduce numbers than machine guns or diseases.

2.4 Mehler's Statements Mehler states (p157): “Cattell's critical remarks about Hitler in later years trivialize the horrors of the past and the dangers inherent in fascist ideology.  In Cattell (1972, p406), for example, he compares Hitler to 'the murderous Hippie cults of California' ”

Actual context from Cattell

Here is this Cattell quote with more context:


Cattell is not comparing Hitler to cults.  He has simply used both in a list of five examples of people following a bad leader, with "arrogance" and "error in their perception of what is right".  Some of the examples are on a larger scale, some on a smaller scale.  Given the publication date of Cattell's book, he likely is referring to the 1978 mass murder/suicide of Jim Jones followers, and might be referring to other cults, in the phrase "recent murderous Hippie sects of California".  It is true that "only" 900 people died in the Jonestown massacre, in contrast to the millions who died under Hitler, but Cattell probably added the example because of its recency or different nature (followers committing suicide, in contrast to genocide).  The other examples he lists are also quite different in scale, nature, and time period.  In any case, Cattell was not comparing scale, he was merely listing examples.

Mehler claims that Cattell trivializes the horrors of Hitler, but in actuality, as Glayde Whitney points out, "Mehler in effect trivilizes the Holocaust by his loose and inappropriate invocation of Hitler".

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Many additional examples could be cited, but the above sampling should be enough to show that Cattell's position has been severely distorted.  It is not uncommon for critics to misrepresent the opposing side in a difference of political opinion, but in this case the misrepresentation is particularly extreme, and the criticism was published in the final years and months of Cattell's life, when he was not able to defend his position against these misrepresentations.

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