IQ, Homogeneity and Classical Economics

A new post on the IQ debate at A Canadian Econoview gets to the heart of the matter, using the wonderful passage from Smith that David Levy and I use for our book title:

Note that bit about the vanity of the philosopher. Smith called 'em like he saw 'em. And as he saw it, most of the observed differences between adults is actually the result of education and training building on small natural differences.

Difference is a matter of the specialization, luck and history.  Less well known than this Smithian perspective on natural homogeneity, is the attack and eventual demise of economic man late in the nineteenth century and well into the 20th.  Our Vanity of the Philosopher tells how social and economic thought came to be infected by notions of racial and other innate differences. 

It wasn't until after WWII that economists like von Mises, Lionel Robbins, and Stigler & Becker returned to the classical economists' argument that economic man is essentially the same.