Alfred Binet

The instrument-maker whose purpose was reversed by the man who adopted him.¹

Documented core

With Théodore Simon, Binet built the first practical intelligence scale (1905) for a stated purpose: to identify children who were struggling in school so that they could be given help. In 1916 Lewis Terman published the Stanford revision — the Stanford–Binet — and proposed the opposite use: to classify children by score and settle them onto the job-track the score was held to fit. The tool crossed the Atlantic and its aim inverted on the way.

Role in the thesis

The documented origin of the ranking test, and the cleanest case of purpose reversed in adoption: the same scale, built to aid and repurposed to sort. Cited to Binet’s own 1905 paper, so the inversion is measured against what he actually set out to do.

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1. Alfred Binet & Théodore Simon, 'Méthodes nouvelles pour le diagnostic du niveau intellectuel des anormaux', L'Année Psychologique 11 (1905) — the Binet–Simon scale, built to identify children needing help ↩︎

Referenced by. Where this entry is cited in the reading — hover any to read it in place.

• Two Testimonies — “In 1916 he published the Stanford revision of the Binet–Simon scale, the dominant American intelligence test for decades.”
• Measuring the Child — “In 1916 Terman published the Stanford revision of the Binet–Simon scale, the Stanford–Binet, the dominant intelligence test in the country for decades.”
• The Seed — “Nothing grew out of Liber AL into the nurseries and the testing bureaus; John Watson did not read Crowley, and the Stanford–Binet owes him nothing.”