Intelligence-As a basis for deciding who lives and dies
- Thread starter Vegan Dogs
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Urban Gardener
Forum Legend
Intelligence is in the eye of the beholder.
First, in scientific terms, what is it?
Convergent thinking - the ability to come up with the same answer as most other people (ie the answer that is considered correct).
That is what intelligence tests measure - one's ability to solve problems in a way that is considered correct.
Creativity (divergent thinking) is not measured by traditional intelligence testing, as are many other cognitive skills that we tend to think of as "intelligence."
Furthermore, intelligence testing comes with a lot of confounding variables, and a lot of baggage. It has a history of being conducted in a biased way and used for all the wrong reasons.
Even under the best circumstances, it is not free from cultural biases and other issues. The motivation of the test taker is a variable, as is the test taker's overall state of mind (anxiety?).
The value of intelligence testing has its limits and is very much up for debate.
The intelligence of other species is often guessed on a neurological basis. We look at the size and complexity of their brains (if they have one, CNS if they don't).
This also has limits. There is A LOT that we still don't know about neurobiology. It's unexplored territory compared to many other areas of science.
Do dogs think? We assume they don't based on their brain structure and our observations of their actions. But we have no way of knowing.
The neuroanatomy of insects appears to us to be very simple. And yet they do solve problems and behave as though they're curious about the world.
We need to realize our own limits.
The idea that we can determine the intelligence of other creatures, or rank the intelligence of our own kind, is just ego.
We need to abandon that ego trip and become more realistic.
Our focus should not be on the idea of intelligence as a fixed number or rank but on the vast power of the mind and our need to understand it better, and appreciate it more fully.
First, in scientific terms, what is it?
Convergent thinking - the ability to come up with the same answer as most other people (ie the answer that is considered correct).
That is what intelligence tests measure - one's ability to solve problems in a way that is considered correct.
Creativity (divergent thinking) is not measured by traditional intelligence testing, as are many other cognitive skills that we tend to think of as "intelligence."
Furthermore, intelligence testing comes with a lot of confounding variables, and a lot of baggage. It has a history of being conducted in a biased way and used for all the wrong reasons.
Even under the best circumstances, it is not free from cultural biases and other issues. The motivation of the test taker is a variable, as is the test taker's overall state of mind (anxiety?).
The value of intelligence testing has its limits and is very much up for debate.
The intelligence of other species is often guessed on a neurological basis. We look at the size and complexity of their brains (if they have one, CNS if they don't).
This also has limits. There is A LOT that we still don't know about neurobiology. It's unexplored territory compared to many other areas of science.
Do dogs think? We assume they don't based on their brain structure and our observations of their actions. But we have no way of knowing.
The neuroanatomy of insects appears to us to be very simple. And yet they do solve problems and behave as though they're curious about the world.
We need to realize our own limits.
The idea that we can determine the intelligence of other creatures, or rank the intelligence of our own kind, is just ego.
We need to abandon that ego trip and become more realistic.
Our focus should not be on the idea of intelligence as a fixed number or rank but on the vast power of the mind and our need to understand it better, and appreciate it more fully.
Lou
Forum Legend
I think it was Franz De Wahl who after a lifetime of studying animal intelligence wrote that we are not smart enough to figure out how smart animals are.
Urban Gardener
Forum Legend
Or to rank the intelligence of members of our own species.
