Kevin B. MacDonald

Kevin B. MacDonald ( born January 24, 1944 in Oshkosh ( Wisconsin)) is an American psychologist. He is a professor at California State University, Long Beach. He was known primarily for the thesis that Judaism is characterized by " gruppenevolutionäre strategy ".

MacDonald claims that Ashkenazi Jews have a number of innate personality traits. The evolutionary psychologists John Tooby and Steven Pinker criticize McDonalds work as unscientific and accuse him of anti-Semitism.

Biography

MacDonald is the son of a police officer and a secretary. In 1966 he acquired in the Wisconsin B. A. and 1976, a master's in biology at the University of Connecticut. In behavioral biology, he obtained in 1981 a Ph.D., his thesis supervisor was Benson E. Ginsburg. His work focused on the behavioral development in wolves.

As a post - graduate student, he worked with Ross Parke 1983 in the psychology department of the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. His research dealt with parent-child interactions at play. Since 1983 he is an employee of the Department of Psychology at California State University - Long Beach and has since 1995 appointed professor. MacDonald was 1995 to 2001 a member of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

MacDonald appeared as a witness for the Holocaust denier David Irving in a lost libel suit against historian Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books. MacDonald claimed that Irving's book was rejected by the publisher is not because of its scientific shortcomings, but on pressure " of various Jewish ethno- activist organizations ", " newspaper columnist " and " people like Deborah Lipstadt ".

Judaism as a collective evolutionary strategy

In the U.S., MacDonald is known for a trilogy, tries to interpret Judaism and Jewish culture evolution psychologically: A People That Shall Dwell Alone (1994, " A nation that should keep to themselves " ), Separation and Its Discontents (1998, " demarcation and dissatisfaction " ) and the Culture of Critique (1998, " the Culture of critique "). MacDonald claims that Judaism is the evolution of a group strategy that enables Jews to outperform non-Jews as competitors for resources. With the term Jewish ethnocentrism, he thinks that the "Jewish race" Jews transported in a number of specific genetic capabilities, such as above-average verbal intelligence and a strong tendency to collective behavior.

Criticism

The academics Jeff Schatz has accused him of politically abusing his work. John Tooby, president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society and Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara MacDonald throws against anti-Semitism and claims that MacDonald's ideas in "radical opposition to virtually any substantive core claim of evolutionary psychology " stood. The psychologist Steven Pinker explains that MacDonald's theses absurd ad hominem attacks were that clearly contradict the state of scientific research.

Books and monographs

  • MacDonald, KB: Understanding Jewish Influence: A Study in Ethnic Activism, with an Introduction by Samuel Francis, ( Occidental Quarterly November, 2004) ISBN 1-59368-017-1
  • Burgess, RL & MacDonald, KB ( Eds.): Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Development, 2nd ed, (Sage 2004) ISBN 0-7619-2790-5
  • MacDonald, KB: The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth - Century Intellectual and Political Movements ( Praeger 1998) ISBN 0-275-96113-3 ( Preface online)
  • MacDonald, KB: Separation and Its Discontents Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti -Semitism ( Praeger 1998) ISBN 0-275-94870-6
  • MacDonald, KB: A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism As a Group Evolutionary Strategy, With Diaspora Peoples, ( Praeger, 1994) ISBN 0-595-22838-0
  • MacDonald, KB ( Ed. ): Parent -child Play: Descriptions and Implications. ( State University of New York Press, 1993)
  • MacDonald, KB ( Ed. ): Sociobiological Perspectives on Human Development, ( Springer -Verlag, 1988)
  • MacDonald, KB: Social and Personality Development: An Evolutionary Synthesis ( Plenum, 1988)
Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Richard Lynn Integrated Authority File
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