Although intelligence is purveyed as a requisite quality how does it really help towards success, for example, happiness and quality of life. Is there something to be said for stupidity?
Are intelligent people richer or is it only a certain type of intelligence that acquires money? Are not most philosophers poor? Do we have better relationships (I strongly doubt it)?
Isn't luck a better quality to possess?
I think intelligence - as a value - is overrated, but in effect, it is "underrated".
Dear Stanley Wilkin,
Although the opposite of intelligence might be stupid when we consider Thinking Mind Consciousness, happiness and contentment is a heart-based experience which is linked to Feeling-mind Consciousness. Accessing this level does not depend on whether one is intelligent or stupid, although the simplicity in people living from this level might be associated with "stupidity" by some who are ignorant about this level of consciousness..
My statement is based on the Theory of the Six Main Levels of Consciousness (Arka, 2013) and my own research into the third level. I also suggest children mainly live from this level until they are trained to develop their intellectual mind.
If we lose touch with our feeling-mind consciousness, then our intelligence might be a heavy price to pay concerning our happiness. The ideal for me is to develop our intellectual ability and maintain contact with our deeper Self via the heart.
Research The Theory of Six Main Levels of Consciousness: A Study of t...
Article Experiencing Peace Through Heart-Based Meditation on The Self
I wonder though, Tina, whether what we understand as intelligence, problem solving, proper estimation, evaluation, isn't required also for your model?
Hi Stanley,
Heart based intelligence is intuitive based. You can still evaluate and solve problems from this level. When we evaluate according to what others have said or written, we are more in the thinking mind and using intellectual thinking than in the heart. Does this clarify things for you? It is not an either or - we can consciously access both Thinking mind consciousness and Heart based consciousness when we know how. Many people also use both levels but are not consciously aware of their differences.
Warm regards Tina
Intelligence is one's ability to learn from experience and to adapt to shape, and select environments. But how overrated it may be, would depend on how you define it.
Happiness, Success, Quality of Life , Monetary success are very different from each other. Suppose that you are offer two pills:
The pill of stupidity and success ,
Or the pill of intelligence and no social success.
Which one would you choose. I would choose the later because I prefer to be an unappy human than an happy plant.
I do not think that ''Intelligence'' is a fixed quality. It definitly grow with education and culture and experience. It is the choices in life which we do that either increase it or decrease it. A lot of the choices that privilege social success implies a decrease of intelligence. There is always a price to pay for a social rewards and intelligence is usually one of them. One has to pay a high social price for increasing his intelligence. The hardest part is to dare to use it because most of the time it is so much simpler and faster to not use it and all the social rewards are usually pushing for these choices that avoid the use of intelligence. With time , it is like all muscles, it sclerose when it is not used and regress.
Louis, I agree with you about intelligence not being a fixed quality but nevertheless there must be a distinction between the two states, no matter how variable in actuality intelligence is.
Given the impact of emotional intelligence on the ability of the individual to adapt effectively to the demands of the surrounding environment and pressures, Bar-On and Gulman pointed to the importance of emotional intelligence in success in life and happiness, and just as success leads to happiness, happiness leads to success as well. A high degree of emotional intelligence, according to the theory of personality, have a high ability to awareness and insight into their emotions, behavior, strengths and weaknesses in their personalities, and have a high ability to manage their emotions in a manner that achieves the required adjustment with the situation.
Intelligence is definitely not overrated. Based on my general observation, I am strongly convinced that the value of intelligence is underestimated and this is the main reason for the increasing dissatisfaction and frustration of some people in our time.
When it comes to success, which may or may not result from intelligence, I think that the quote from S. Kovalevskaya describes the best approach:
“Say what you know, do what you must, come what may”
For more information please consult the following site:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Kovalevskaya.html
Intelligence is related to our mind & brain & it has also indirectly a reference to our hereditary it is in this line that sometime back I have my publication under the captioned '' Intelligence - The Markway to Progress '' which I submit herewith for your perusal & also with the request you may kindly arrange to feedback an opinion in this respect .
This is my personal opinion
Well, bear in mind that intelligence hasn't always been highly rated, that in technological societies it tends to be more than in any other society. Athleticism and warrior temperaments have in the past been respected more.
this link is useful
https://www.inc.com/.../intelligence-is-overrated-heres-what-it-really-t..
regards
Dear respected Stanley Wilkin,
Intelligence is needed in the success process. Luck does not always work for every body in order to succeed. The three types of intelligence needed for success process are:
1. Academic or Verbal intelligence: Being smart and having a high intelligence are related to success both on job and in leadership positions, but the relationship is not all that strong. Smart people can usually figure out how to do a job, and they are good at the more “academic” parts of the position. But to be truly successful requires other forms of intelligence which are emotional and social intelligence.
2. Emotional intelligence: Emotional intelligence has become quite a popular construct, and it involves knowledge of emotions in oneself and others. It is related to ability to build good relationships at work, to monitor and control emotional displays, and to display appropriate feelings. It is a lack of emotional intelligence that often derails leaders who act out and throw tantrums or alienate loyal and dedicated workers.
3. Social intelligence: it involves understanding social situations, relationships, and knowing what to do in a given situation. Although social intelligence doesn’t get as much attention as the other intelligences, our research work shows that it is most important for leadership success.
Best regards.
Kifilideen.
If you view intelligence as simply a construct, a way of looking at problems but not the only way.
I have never ceased to be amazed at those with high level academic qualifications who express ideas on life, for example, that appear no better informed than your average salesgirl (my apologies to salesgirls) or cleaners (apologies again), who seem unable to reflect on attitudes and beliefs. Of course all attitudes and beliefs have their own intellectual make-up.
Dear Stanley,
"Well, bear in mind that intelligence hasn't always been highly rated ...Athleticism and warrior temperaments have in the past been respected more".
Yes I agree with you. But in most societies, people who have discovered their true "Self", have been the most respected of all but not necessarily by all.. Discovering the Self was considered the most important quest in life, so anyone who had found the way or was considered as having found the way, was a "teacher" and highly respected by others. Often these people were the most humble of souls - in the Christian tradition, Jesus was a shining example. Although he certainly was not respected by all in his time - neither was Socrates. They were not teaching intelligence as it is taught today, but I have no doubt they were highly intelligent people. Maybe it has to do with how they used their intelligence and the aims behind it.
Warm regards Tina
.
I think, Tina, that Socrates would have certainly understood what 'intelligence' meant in the modern sense, a gift for language and through that to formulate ideas. He had that belief in his mental attributes that often comes with assumptions of clarity of thought. Look at when he goes around questioning high achievers, poets, playwrights, to find out if they have knowledge, thereby challenging the rumpour that he is the wisest/cleverest man in Athens. He accordingly fails. Nevertheless, he did not understand that he had a particular kind of wisdom and the physicist who attempts to check others intelligence through only asking questions from physics will of course be disappointed.
The efforts of scientists and researchers on the qualities of the leader and their connection to the result that the leaders are born and do not make, and that the leaders have miraculous talents enable them to bring about change, and these features is intelligence, there is a close link between intelligence and leadership features, has shown the available research that intelligence is one of the most important factors Which sets the levels of success ...
leaders have miraculous talents-Djaafar do you mean Trump, Putin and Erdogan?
Thank you Cecilia for this observation. The historical perspective on the evolving role of intelligence and mathematics in modern society is presented in the excellent book: Remembering Sofya Kovalevskaya
https://books.google.ca/books/about/Remembering_Sofya_Kovalevskaya.html?id=sfqMyhrVuu8C&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y
The book is very well illustrated and shows how important independent thinking is in all aspects of our lives.
Dear Stanley Wilkin,
The intelligence of the ancient warriors preceded all forms of intelligence and was the most valuable asset besides gold. The quotations from Sun Tzu (法 法 The Art of War) show this even today
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
“Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting”
“Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate”
“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near”
Perhaps, if we follow the rules of Sun Tzu, there will be no doubt about the importance of intelligence in all areas. It's not always easy, but it's helpful to note the following: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”.
Isn't they more to do with strategy than the muscularity, strength, courage and skill with weapons warriors were associated with?
Intelligence is the mind's ability to think and infer higher than average. Every person who is born and has a seed for a particular talent, singing, performing sports efficiently, writing or even solving problems, can also be socially distinguished, and you have a special carisma.
Prompting some scientists to say that there is no so-called intelligent absolute, or even the absolute stupidity, every person who is smart in the area in which it excels.
Dear Stanley
"I think, Tina, that Socrates would have certainly understood what 'intelligence' meant in the modern sense, a gift for language and through that to formulate ideas. He had that belief in his mental attributes that often comes with assumptions of clarity of thought".
If you understand Socrates ideas about soul, then you will find he had a very different view as to "who" does the thinking to modern scientists who normally associate consciousness or soul/spirit consciousness as being a product of the brain. This has a relationship to insights which do not always come from the thinking mind/mind, but are more intuitive and are a property of the soul. The thinking mind/intellectual ability is one of the aspects or properties of soul. For me clarity of thought or insight, mostly arise from a deeper layer and then one can use ones´s mental abilities to examine them. For Socrates (from what we know) this appears seems to be part of the process. In this you are correct. Modern science dos not readily accept the idea of a soul.
Warm regards Tina
Socrates thinking was certainly not modern, or applicable to modern understanding, but the soul? Not sure about that. The soul is a much later development. His notion of daemon stemmed from Middle Eastern ideas of special qualities separate from the individual but also attached to the individual. Special qualities that inhabited rather than belonged.
The idea of the soul, as it developed, was/is a separate part of the personality that is nevertheless integral to it, holding its identity, which is distinctly different from Socrates' concept.
Nevertheless, my point was not quite that. Socrates had particular ways of thinking based upon language and the structure of thinking. He, as I'm sure you know, attempted, by his own account, to draw out truth/perception from others but in order to practise this he used his own ideas and methods that others were not always accustomed to. He was always therefore likely to appear wiser than others. This was in fact no more than a Sophist conceit, which many at the time accused him of.
Hi Stanley,
"The soul is a much later development".
You might find this interesting
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ancient-soul/
I do not think that he necessarily used the term quite like I do, but there is a long history of the use of the term in the Greek tradition. What was included in this term seems to have changed over time.
Have a good day - warm regards Tina
I thought, Tina, I might have jumped the gun in my response assuming that soul in your consideration was allied to the Christian or religious aspect in general-which of course it is in terms of virtue and clarity of virtue. But again the transcendental side of Socrate's concept I think is largely missing from statements alleged to be his. It is allied more strongly to abstractions of community virtues, and the explanation I have given. From that we do surely get the Christian understanding of rationality, acceptance of god through purification of thought, and modern concepts-purification of thought from superstition and through focus on the object.
Dear Stanley Wilkin
intelligence is not overrated, actually, it is suppressed. We are not giving value to the intelligence it is underrated by our own created system.
Regards
Dr. Kamath Madhusudhana.
Dr Kamath, how? Many parts of modern society gives full rein to intelligence and its expression-mechanical, technical, abstract thinking.
Abstract thinking and right measurement process is the solution for a complex issue like intelligence.
Intelligence is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for identifying such concepts as quality of life or happiness. Many a man may be intelligent ,but live in sheer misery. The instinctive quest for self discovery , the invisible spiritual principle underlying the philosophy of creation , as you have rightly observed, is actualized via the heart. Consequently , the state of happiness or misery and all bipolar emotions are shaped and interpreted in man's journey of inner discovery. As a human , at the very core of our being, we know who we are , we know whether we are happy or unhappy, intelligent or stupid. On this basis, intelligence is an overrated psychological construct.
Intelligence matters to utilize and expedite our efforts, but should not be overrated.
Please refer to this article on "The News" Website: https://www.achrnews.com/articles/138820-why-intelligence-might-be-overrated
Rich people who think poor are happy. They are no more stupid than the poor who think the rich are happy.
I think intelligence - as a value - is overrated, but in effect, it is "underrated".
Intelligence operates well in certain areas, but I've often found that personality brings credible and swift results in a large number of areas. A successful businessman might have drive, optimism, good decision-making but not truly outstanding intelligence (intellectual capacity.)
According to my system of values intelligence is the main and obligatory. Maybe it sounds categorically but I always value a person with intelligence.
It is well known that intelligence involves mental abilities that include logic and reasoning on the issues, problem solving and planning.
No connection between intelligence and being rich. I agree that doing business for yourself gives you much more rather than doing job for others. On other hand if you so courageous to start own business but need investment. Simple is that money earns money.
Thank you very much for asking this very important question. The above question is a very important issue that requires a scientific study. In my opinion, between the concepts used in the question can be identified specific correlations, but the use of quantitative methods in research in this area can be difficult. Best wishes
I would say yes, at least theoretically. ''Intelligence is an overrated virtue. Intuition is an underutilized asset.''
--P. R. Mukund
Regards
The key success is intelligence. The process of building a successful man is really required the characteristics of intelligence
Does it Marwan? Doctors are considered intelligent for example but their learning is mainly mechanistic and they rarely deal in abstraction or evaluation. Maybe for this role and other professional roles intelligence is not the main quality needed?
Once intelligence is given a holistic meaning as in a number of qualities and characteristics that describe it we can say that it is one of the many aspects of a happy fulfilling life.
What is one to do with intelligence ? How are emotions administered? How much creativity is needed.
Money is a form of exchange.....a swap...and it needs many different qualities or characteristics. ...to be fruitful.
If you are saying intelligence is not an easily defined quality or one defined by simple processes, than I agree.
Absolutely Stanley. Intelligence nowadays has many definitions enabling us all to have a piece of the pie.
Success makes you a public person and here is where intelligence is needed to administer it in order to be fulfilled.
Success takes freedom away and money allows independence. Which one would you choose?
Stupidity or ignorance or daftness? Which one were you thinking of?
Sometimes it's best to live in the shadow of not knowing as knowledge has a jagged edge.
Luck= synchronicity,coincidence. I love to think of it as the ungraspable side of human nature.
Intelligence represents potential, but means little if it cannot be translated into hard work,effort, good judgment and achievements.
It would be interesting to know how people visualise the results of intelligence. How is it expressed? Through professional qualifications and career? Through artistic endeavour or scientific discovery?
What about car mechanics? Why say for example that a surgeon has to be intelligent but a car mechanic not? Are not surgeons and car mechanics in terms of understanding of how something works and the dexterity to fix problems doing the same or similar work?
I think the main reason people tend to call intelligence overrated is because many associate intelligence with a large amount of useless knowledge, wealth, good grades and high IQ. And since none of those things gives happiness, love or much power to achieve anything of value, Intelligence can be seen as overrated.
The Artificial intelligence is not overrated, but the human hope that AI will help him to solve big problems.
I have been looking at Galton's early work on the classifying and recording of intelligence. He is considered to have been the first to recognise the Bell Curve whereby most congregate towards the centre and only a few at either end. Now apart from this being obvious to all of us he did not then clarify any other aspects of those judged intelligent-for example. Background and upbringing played no part. Eysenck and more recently Dr Watson have made claims about the different IQs of previously colonised peoples without further qualifying attempts. In fact Galton received only a modest pass at university due to his problems in dealing with stress. When I was a boy those regarded as intelligent were those from upper classes or professionals, even talented poor children were not regarded as intelligent.
Intelligence is like manure in that it is no good unless it is spread around.
Intelligence does not reflect knowledge, comprehension, understanding or interpretation, all of which reflect different intellectual qualities.
IQ measures a very narrow form of ability, typically the ability to think abstractly and solve abstract problems. Of course, there are many other forms of intelligence too: intelligence in evaluating people; intelligence in music; intelligence in understanding complexity; real-time intelligence (used in video games and fast-action sports). Most of these are ignored by the usual IQ test.
Djaafar, I agree. For some of the reasons I have already provided, intelligence testing seems often to fall down. Its original testing was connected to professional status-the elite within a society-but many famous writers and artists were poor and anonymous.
The website below gives hundreds of images associated with:
"Every stupidity has a champion"
https://www.google.com/search?q=every+stupidity+has+a+champion&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi498a6tbniAhVD63MBHdRFCYgQ7Al6BAgJEA0&biw=1920&bih=937
Dear Stanley:
Thank you for asking the interesting Question that led to my Answer that helped to lighten your day.
The best quality to possess is, with absolute certainty, the luck. In fact, if a person is lucky every day he will receive the "manna" from heaven. However, this quality alone is not enough as we must also have a minimum of intelligence to understand that the manna must not be absolutely wasted and that manna belongs to all humanity on a par with all other natural resources.
I agree, Leonardo. Still, I suspect many highly successful people are not highly intelligent. Why need they be? What if brains develop also through experience and the optimum is expressed through natural ability and experience?
Intelligence is God gifted(in genetics) inherited and skill is earned himself
Some intelligence is inherited. My family for example have IQs inthe lower regions.
Intelligence is good for making people happy. We're no longer a population slogging through the cold mud every day. But the idea-haver may not be happier for being so good at it.
Some egomaniac's think they have more intelligence than everyone. They try to create what they are not, but this fake it until you become that way that started in 2015, does not work with academicians. This is so because we have seen that movie many many times. It is like a person with $100 jumping up and saying I am so rich that I do not know how to be rich anymore to his audience who are multimillionaires. Doesn't that look stupid?
I think intelligence tends to be associated with skills and knowledge, which have only a great and good value that you can do with skills and knowledge.
We are all intelligent. God never creates a dumb person! The problem is how we use our intelligence. Are you lifting people up or putting people down? Some of us cannot handle what we tell others, whereas others are looking for a way to shine, but not realizing that we do not need to shine because the Almighty has already created ways for that to happen. Then, there are people who are so opinionated that they cannot see that it is that tendency that is holding them back from their own blessings.
Intelligence is not overrated by those who have it and by those who do not.
Very good Michael I agree.
Chuck, when I started my first degree in Classics an older man was completing his. He had done very well. He spoke with a rough London accent, and previously he had worked as a labourer. He was returning to work as a labourer.
Given the chance, many can do what we have done.
To Stanley:
Many thanks for the reference to the classically educated labourer.
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