What went wrong? Reflections on science by observation and The Bell Curve

The Bell Curve aims to establish a set of causal claims. I argue that the m ethodology of The Bell Curve is typical of much of contemporary social scie nce and is intrinsically defective. I claim better methods are available fo r causal inference from observational data, but that those methods would yi eld no causal conclusions from the data used in the formal analyses in The Bell Curve. Against the laissez-faire social policies advocated in the book , I claim that when combined with common sense and other information, the i nformal data mustered in The Bell Curve support a range of "liberal" social policies.