Nathan Cofnas

In March 2018, Cofnas published a critique of Kevin B. MacDonald's anti-semitic, white supremacist conspiracy theories in the journal Human Nature where he concluded that MacDonald relied "on systematically misrepresented sources and cherry-picked facts".[3] The paper was popular, being downloaded more in a single month than the rest of the journal's articles typically get in a full year.[4] After promoting the paper, Jordan Peterson faced "backlash from an anti-Semitic mob".[5] Cofnas' article prompted a response defending MacDonald from Edward Dutton, a theologian and anthropologist affiliated with eugenicist Richard Lynn's Ulster Institute for Social Research (which also published Cofnas's 2012 book). Dutton's response was rejected by Human Nature, and was instead published by Evolutionary Psychological Science.[6] The attention prompted by Cofnas's paper was itself commented on. Anthropologist Robert Boyd of the Arizona State described the topic itself as "totally toxic", Steven Pinker described MacDonald's and Dutton's arguments as "extraordinarily weak", while Aryeh Tuchman of the Anti-Defamation League said that the renewed attention falsely implied that MacDonald's antisemitic tropes have academic legitimacy.[4]

In December 2019 Cofnas published a paper defending the study of group differences in intelligence in the journal Philosophical Psychology. As reported in Times Higher Education, an editors' note "acknowledges that the article 'certainly adopts provocative positions on a host of issues related to race, genetics, and IQ', but says its inclusion was based on 'philosophical and scientific merit, rather than ideological conformity'".[7]

A petition spearheaded by Mark Alfano, Associate Professor of philosophy at Macquarie University, argued that Cofnas’s paper “disingenuously argues that the best explanation of differences in IQ scores between racial and ethnic groups is genetics,” and asked the editors of Philosophical Psychology for an "apology, retraction, or resignation (or some combination of these three)".[8]

An article in Inside Higher Ed discussed the controversy, quoting biologist Joseph L. Graves as stating that there would not be a problem with Cofnas' defense of free inquiry if it were "being done in a way that adheres to what we really know about the genetics of complex traits," but that instead the paper is predicated on unrealistic assumptions which would require researchers to "grow human beings in controlled ways" in order to even assess.[8] Cofnas, for his part, is quoted as saying, "I wrote about this because it's important, and if we fail to deal with these issues I believe the long-term consequences could be disastrous".[8] The controversy has led to the resignation of Philosophical Psychology editor Cees van Leeuwen.[9]