> which simply means that "being predictive" is not by itself dispositive of some underlying mechanism.
Right. I don’t see how any statistical analysis can tell you if a mechanism exists or what it is. Quite the opposite. The better you understand the mechanism of the process that generates your data points the higher quality your statistical analysis will be. And in the case of intelligence we know there must be an actual real underlying factor because some people are observably smarter than others.
I don't think anybody is arguing that people aren't observably smarter than other people; the question is about the metrics we're using, which, I mean, an equally vivid (and equally non-rigorous) argument would be: if you really buy into the IQ/g story, go hang out with a bunch of Mensa people and see how long you hold onto that belief.
Right. I don’t see how any statistical analysis can tell you if a mechanism exists or what it is. Quite the opposite. The better you understand the mechanism of the process that generates your data points the higher quality your statistical analysis will be. And in the case of intelligence we know there must be an actual real underlying factor because some people are observably smarter than others.