Now, I don't understand what others mean when they say someone is intelligent. Notice that only people below 18 are compared on the basis of intelligence. What I think is that intelligence is the measure of how quickly does a person's brain matures. This idea is based upon the fact that the human body is growing till the age of 18 or 22. So some part of the body grows and matures faster than other parts of our body same reason as why some men get a beard later than others. So a person who's brain is given a high priority by his body will naturally develop logic faster than another one who's body has prioritized height. So people who don't have a well developed brain for their respective age are considered dumb (not talking about mentally handicapped) which should not be the case. But because of repeated hammering that that person is dumb he develops an inferiority complex which prevents him from doing good later. Also note that people who are termed intelligent at a young age are appreciated which motivates them to learn and directly/indirectly it helps them later So I feel that there is no such thing as one has more thinking powers than others or vice versa.
P.S.- If there are other experiences you have that make you think otherwise please tell me.
I think you kinda got it right, but I would personally say that people put too much weight on how much a person might know and not enough weight on how fast an individual can learn it. Among my family I am considered "intelligent" but I dont think I am any better than the next person when it comes to learning. In fact in some cases I can be slower than average but I spend a lot of my time trying to learn what I can. Does wanting to learn make you intelligent? I dont think so, I think its more about how quickly you can learn information. Obviously the best example is someone who can learn quickly and likes to learn as well. What about those who havent had the chance to learn as much as I have, does that mean they are below average intelligence? and what about people who can learn quickly and have information at their disposal but choose to not use it?
There is certainly a difference in the capacity to learn from person to person based on many factors, intelligence isn't really based on the ability to learn in a raw form as much as the ability to problem solve and learn from the mistakes made, but capacity to learn is what makes the difference between a janitor and a engineer, everyone has the ability to learn to some degree but some folks solving complex tasks comes naturally while others may find the solution by beating their heads against a wall for years to come to the same conclusion it took someone minuets to arrive at.
Of course people are victims of the environment they grow, develop and live in, to me in that case it's all about exposure and influence, there are so many outside influences that also effect learning or the willingness/ability to learn....it's sad to say but not everyone is born with the same capacity either.
Honestly....some folks are just dumb as a box of rocks, its I guess in some ways the luck of the draw.
To me intelligence is the sum of so many abilities of a determined brain that it's impossible to define. Since even a really skilled sport player can be considered intelligent in my opinion since every movment starts from the brain and it's controlled by it. If I have to give a definition I would describe it as the ability to confront life's challenges*. That's what allowed the humans to evolve to a more complex species. It's a really interesting question but lies in the same grey area as feelings because it's a definition we have to describe what we perceive and it's not a tangible thing we can measure.
*I'm talking about everything someone does in it's life, from doing homeworks to face really bad moments
What my opinion is that a janitor can have a great capacity of learning but if he is not willing to learn or work hard in order to achieve what he wants it is but a question of will power and the ironical part is that you need a lot of will power to obtain will power.
If you want to do something, you end up doing it anyway. But if you don''t want to its up to you. As for a quick learner, when you learn something you essentially decode it ie. you recognize the pattern behind it. If you can recall a pattern that you have already seen which you may have noticed can be as irrelevant as it can be to the topic at hand you will learn quickly. Its a matter of luck or probability like if you have a knack of collecting information then the total set of information you have is much higher so the chance of a 'cache hit' is much high. And for people who haven't got a chance to learn, they can always create a chance.
I kinda agree with you but what I think is that if you have the ability to confront life's challenges you are successful. So intelligence is your ability of becoming successful. But if you try hard enough you can be successful. What I deduce from it is that is everyone has the same level of 'intelligence'. It all trickles down to the willingness to do stuff.
In the US, back in the 80's, people with ADD were labeled clinically as "High IQ-Learning disabled". These are not stupid people and yet they have something which impedes their ability to perform in a classroom setting the same as their peers. IQ has been shown time and again to be a poor indicator of success in life.
There are many forms that intelligence can take. The human brain has many different centers capable of different tasks and different people have different capacities in many areas.
Take those referred to as "idiot savant". I've seen examples where some were able to perform amazing feats of intellectual ability, and yet they also lacked the ability to care for themselves day to day.
Some people have amazing memory, some have social skills, some can think very logically, others can ace tests without ever studying. And yet others aren't so gifted and struggle with day to day tasks.
This is why most measurements of intelligence are flawed in some way. Most are looking for specific kinds of intelligence, or even specific mixtures of intelligence, but few tell the whole story.
We all have our deficiencies and talents, some more or less than others. I feel the key is often to recognize our limitations and flaws and find ways to cope with them if possible. Often in life, the person willing to put in a great effort to learn something can be more successful than someone that finds learning easy but doesn't put in the effort to really understand it.
Oh I agree with you, so much of intelligence is formed through experiences and how the individual deals or copes with those experiences, emotion or emotional state plays a huge role especially with young people on how they get through those experiences either coming away with a good learning experience or a bad one. I do believe given the right set of circumstances most people are on a pretty level playing field when it comes to learning it is as you say the willingness to learn or again as you say the will power to want to better themselves.
All of this and tons more translates eventually into what makes up the intelligence of a given person, it also has a big role in shaping character which also plays a huge role on a persons will power and willingness to make themselves better by learning.
There is also a biological component to intelligence, or possibility of intelligence. When you look at race, African descendant people have slanted skills in the for head area causing a slightly smaller frontal lobe, which is believed to be related to the average IQ being lower than say and East Asian with the highest average IQ and the flattest forehead. Allowing for more space for the frontal lobe.
Basic answer is a ton of factors. Sadly not too much research into genetic intelligence factors is possible because it gets branded racist very quickly.
Intelligence... Well I see it as what one may understand as teachability index. That is your willingness to learn x your willingness to change. On a scale of 1-10. If you are completely willing to change what you are doing, and completely willing to learn you have 10x10 = 100% teachability index. If you are willing to learn but not willing to change 10x0 = 0%.. perhaps not too smart. Intelligence is not just one thing but a combination of things. There are 4 steps to learning. 1. Unconsciously Incompetent 2. Consciously Incompetent 3. Consciously Competent 4 Unconsciously Competent.
for example lets take tying a shoe. 1 You didn't even know there was a shoe to tie 2 You discovered a shoe but no clue how to tie it 3 You are learning to tie the shoe. 4 You tie a shoe without thinking about it, cause your an expert.
So what I think would better 'define' intelligence is that intelligence is the willingness to achieve what you want but also finding an elegant and sophisticated way to achieve it taking in consideration your philosophy. And to do it in the elegant way you gotta look back. You know what, I agree with what you said. Intelligence is being able to learn from your mistakes.
Yeah. Non-scientific... as in this entire thread. The cherry on top being the idea that you can detect the value of an individual's intelligence by the freaking slant of their forehead... FFS.
Intelligence:
Information.
An individual's ability to absorb, retain, and utilize information.
It is the abundance and accuracy of definition number two that would determine someone's relative intelligence; relative to the rest of the population.
/thread
I had a boss that used to often say:
An idiot will take a simple matter and confuse the hell out of it. A genius will take a seemingly confusing matter and make it simple to understand.
Intelligence is just a capacity one has to be able to solve a particular problem. What skews the preception of intelligence is the types of problems they ask to solve. IQ tests do not represent the complete function of intelligence but only a small subset of a type of intelligence.
Long answer: - First, we need to distinguish intelligence from knowledge and/or know-how. You can know a lot of stuff and still be pretty dumb, while you can also be pretty smart but still be very wrong due to lacking knowledge. - Then there's also the element of wisdom to take into consideration. - Intelligence also has to be differentiated from critical thinking, though the latter implies the former.
So here's a rough translation from wikipedia (the article on Intelligence is more detailed in French than in English, unfortunately) :
« Intelligence is the ensemble of a living being's thought-processes that allow it to adapt to new situations, to learn and/or to understand. The definition of Intelligence as well as the question of a faculty of general intelligence has already been the subject of a multitude of scientific and philosophical inquiries.
Intelligence has been described as a faculty of adaptation (learning in order to adapt to the context or, on the contrary, the faculty to modify the context in order to adapt it to our own needs). In this general sense, animals (such as humans), plants, data-processing tools, all demonstrate intelligence.
The term is derived from the latin intelligentĭa, « faculty of understanding », of which the prefix ĭnter- (« between »), and the radical legĕre (« choosing, gathering ») or ligāre (« to link ») suggest essentially the aptitude to link elements together, to demonstrate logic, to demonstrate deductive and/or inductive reasoning. In this sense, intelligence is related to language and abstract thought, which is at most (but not exclusively) a human trait. »
Microsoft Corporation/CEO, Satya Nadella said something last week that I have agreed with for years: 'Don't be a "Know it all" because that implies you are so expert that you can't be taught anything new. Being a "Learn it all" is much more preferable and leads to personal growth."
My version of that is: "As long as I know how to find or figure out the answers when I need to, I have no need to memorize the answers." But that means I have to relearn a task every time I do it. I don't mind re-learning and I find it preferable to clogging my brain with dumb facts I only need for work.
I guess I'm trying to define intelligence as having a flexible enough mind to be able to figure your own way out of almost any situation without resorting to rote regurgitation of memorized facts.
is much high.