RE: Theory number 3.
October 28, 2012 at 12:26 pm
(This post was last modified: October 28, 2012 at 12:43 pm by Edwardo Piet.)
(October 25, 2012 at 10:38 am)apophenia Wrote: According to some, in certain Asian cultures, intelligence itself is not fixed but teachable and malleable.
I say there are ultimately two types of intelligence that both come down to understanding: 1. Our capability of understanding something when we have the information necessary to understand it. The greater our capability of understanding the information required for said understanding, the greater our intelligence. If we don't understand something simply because we have been sheltered from the necessary information, that doesn't mean we're stupid, that just means we're ignorant. 2. The speed of our understanding - i.e the longer it takes to understand something the less intelligent we are. If we understand things really quickly, the speed of our intelligence is greater.
I believe intelligence is therefore not identical to but is very much about understanding. I believe it is different to knowledge because you may know many things without actually understanding them, and if you don't understand them that doesn't mean you have great intellect - you may just have a good memory. It is merely that people who are more intelligent are much more likely to be knowledgeable than people who are not, and they're also much more likely to have better memory. It doesn't imply that it's the same thing.