Intelligence: what is it?

 

I once read a classic book from the sixties called Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes; about a 'retard' who is experimented upon and becomes a genius, and then 'regresses' again to his original state. It makes the point that intellectual brilliance, without human affection and love, is meaningless. Another book on a similar theme is State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett, following the lives of scientists pursuing a hidden grail in the Amazon. Took me a while to get into it, but then I couldn't put it down.

One of the reasons I enjoyed these books is because I get fed up when I hear people talking about how 'intelligent' somebody is. Growing up in a circle of scientists and academics, I heard it rather a lot. The reason I have a problem with it is because most people - particularly those who consider themselves intelligent - define it in an extremely narrow way; limiting it to levels of knowledge, education, and the logic of the intellect.
 

But why does this matter? Because often these so-called intelligent (and generally well-educated) people are usually the ones elected to positions of influence and power, and are frequently the worst people to be in these positions. This kind of intelligence does not automatically mean that other qualities are present: wisdom, empathy, kindness, patience, perspective, and teachability. On the contrary, this kind of intelligence is often coupled with arrogance, impatience, narrow-mindedness, superiority, manipulation, suspiciousness and judgmentalism. Not always. But often. Fame and celebrity-ism will often do the same thing.

By this definition, some of the most intelligent individuals have brought nations to the brink of war, exploited the environment with little thought for the future, been responsible for genocides, and lined their own pockets with gold. Or, on a smaller scale, exploited their neighbour for gain, exercised power over others to bolster their ego, and harshly judged anybody who happens to hold a different opinion from themselves.

Real intelligence involves far more than the logic of the intellect, and sometimes, I suspect, can even manage better without it. Standard IQ tests tend to measure only the ability to analyse, solve problems, and reason: areas like general knowlege, spatial awareness and manipulation, mathematical skills, vocabulary knowledge, logic problem solving, processing speed and memory. But I look forward to the day when we value social, emotional, kinaesthetic, creative, musical and intuitive intelligence as much as we value the intellectual - if not more. There is quite a shift going on in research in these areas, but it's going to take some time to filter through our collective human psyche.

And this shift is so needed: how else will we grow up as human beings?