Summers Revisited

It will be interesting to see what the reaction is, particularly in academia, to Richard Cohen's editorial in today's Washington Post. Cohen points to a recent study by Utah scientists which suggests that (in Cohen's words) "Jews are smarter because over about a thousand years they adapted to discriminatory practices that limited their livelihood to a restricted range of commercial occupations." Cohen then uses this study as an excuse to revisit the controversy surrounding Harvard President Larry Summers' remarks in January about women's achievement in engineering and science. Cohen writes:

"[Summers] was shouted down not because he was wrong, but because he ought to be wrong; not because he might not be right, but because he should not be
right."

Though much of Cohen's piece is sloppily written, his take on the Summers controversy is clearly right. Those who rushed to condemn Summers fit largely into two groups: 1) those who didn't really listen to what he said, and 2) those who subscribe so completely to an idea that they are unwilling to even consider any empirical evidence or logical analysis to the contrary. If the cornerstone of proper liberal thinking is open-mindedness, the Summers affair illustrated just how "illiberal" many in academia are.