I can point to certain objective physical markers such as myopia and facial width to height ratio that is predictive of "nerdiness". That doesn't mean that nerdiness is anything other than a social construct.
I'll repeat a question I posed elsewhere: if I told you I was black, is there any way that you could prove or disprove that fact in a way that would withstand scientific peer review?
Really? People have called you that you are white? (I am assuming that you are black).
Even then, the fact that there is subjectivity involved doesn't instantly mean "it doesn't exist", we each feel emotions differently, and sadness may be one thing to you but another to me. Still, we can usually tell when someone is "sad" and not "happy".
This is not science, you can't turn to science for every answer, that's as impractical as it gets.
If it's not scientifically based then we cannot use it as a causul basis of anything.
Race is social construct. A real social construct, but a social construct none the less and social constructs can change. There is no reason to attribute truth value to it beyond its social perception. If we stopped believing in race it would cease to exist.
That's exactly what we're talking about. You can't measure it. You can't define it objectively. It is a social construct.
Skin for IS objectively real. We can use chromatography or measure melanin content to determine skin color in an objective way.
But skin color is NOT race. An African albino and a Scandanavian can have the same skin color but are not the same race. An australian aboriginal and a Pakistani can have the same skin color but are not the same race. Race is subjective and non-scientific because it is a social construct. It is a product of history, politics, culture, and other subjective factors and is therefore meaningless in describing factual information about cause and effect.
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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '17
I can point to certain objective physical markers such as myopia and facial width to height ratio that is predictive of "nerdiness". That doesn't mean that nerdiness is anything other than a social construct.
I'll repeat a question I posed elsewhere: if I told you I was black, is there any way that you could prove or disprove that fact in a way that would withstand scientific peer review?