Intelligence

Historical definitions

To define the intelligence is difficult. The idea of intelligence seems present in many cultures. The current domination, in the world culture, of the Western organization of knowledge makes very difficult the development of a definition which is not autogenous, while at the same time, according to the Occidental culture, to define the intelligence is included/understood like a paradox: the intelligence of the man is used a priori to be defined itself.

Intelligence according to cultures

African cultures

August 1st

American cultures

It is a question of including/understanding how American cultures, others that those resulting from the Occidental cultures studied below, define the intelligence. August 1st

Asian cultures

August 1st

Occidental cultures

In the Occidental culture, the intelligence is closely related to the idea of comprehension, rapid and/or deep, of identified a “problem”, perceived a priori like complex, located in a field of knowledge and/or a use of the data of nature and/or in a unit of social relations. This comprehension can be singular or divided. It often underlies the idea of an invention, a knowledge, a language to discover to solve this problem, to adapt a solution. This comprehension can take various forms: artistic, body, literary, artisanal, scientific and technological. It is generally associated with an activity whose one intuitively locates the source at the same time in the Esprit of the man and in his Cerveau.

In the popular culture the concept of intelligence is associated with the capacity of knowing to read and write and thus with the school, idea which tends to spread in the world. However the Homo sapiens preexisted before manufacturing the knowledge lira and writing… August 1st

Philosophers, psychologists, biologists, scientists, considered intelligent, gave various definitions of them.

Intelligence according to philosophers

August 1st

Intelligence according to psychologists

A psychologist, Alfred Binet, introduced in 1905 the idea to measure the intelligence of the individuals according to a metric scale of the intelligence . Its research was encouraged by the French government. These first approaches led to the concept of Intelligence quotient.

For Jean Piaget, the intelligence derives from the Adaptation of the prone to its medium. It distinguishes two types of intelligence:

practical intelligence or Sensorimotor,
interiorized intelligence (verbal or reflected).

In connection with the test Binet - Simon, it would be reasonable to reduce the intelligence to performances of tests, but it is not the case even if they are largely used. They aim to quantify (in a relative way, compared to an “average” population, and not absolutely) the capacity with Percevoir, to preserve, analyze and use the Information coming from its Environnement in order to Interagir with this one.

It is clear that, according to the field, the intelligence of a Individu is variable. Many a autistic, for example, restores in the greatest detail of the visual Information S - much more accurately than of the not-autists. However, the possibility of even quantifying this so vast and complex concept that is the intelligence is a very mitigated idea. Several believe that one should re-elect the tests of IQ “tests of academic potential” (TPA) in order to be more precise as for than they measure.

In the absence of joint definition, and of satisfactory Measuring instrument, many definitions exist, which are recut more or less.

One can say that the intelligence is the whole of the mental functions mobilized for the analysis, the Compréhension, and the organization of the Réel in Pensée S (concepts) at the human being, failing to know those of the other animals, in particular most advanced.

One can also define the intelligence as being the capacity to use the Raisonnement Causal, the Imagination, the Prospection and the Flexibilité. It would be thus dependant on the faculty of Adaptation, without being reduced to it.

One can as refer to the definition as gives some the Trésor of the French language computerized (after having devoted an article of 26 pages to the concept and the word):

new circumstances for which the instinct, the training or the practice do not have any Aptitude solution to apprehend and organize the data of the situation, to connect the processes to be used with the goal to reach, choose the means or to discover the original solutions which allow the adaptation to the requirements of the action.

Intelligence according to biologists

Does the intelligence result from a biological predisposition? Y-a it “a” chromosome of the intelligence? August 1st

Other various definitions and quotations

“the intelligence, it is what measure the tests of intelligence”

The inventor of the tests of IQ, A. Binet, would have made an answer of this type (more precisely: “My test of intelligence measures the aptitude… for the test”).

the intelligence is the capacity of

to react with flexibility to the situations which occur
to benefit from fortuitous circumstances
to distinguish the direction of ambiguous messages or contradictory
to consider importance relative of various elements of a situation
to find similarities between situations in spite of the differences which can separate them
to establish distinctions between situations in spite of the similarities which bring them closer
to synthesize new concepts starting from old concepts differently assembled
to find novel ideas

Douglas Hofstadter in " Göedel, Escher, Bach"

the intelligence is a capacity to seize reality. The labor of the intelligence is not vain. It allows a penetration of the close friend of reality, according to the etymology which it gives of the word intelligence: intus-light. To see with the close friend of reality, i.e. to bore appearances which can be misleading.

Fides and ratio, 1999

Together of the mental functions having for object the Knowledge conceptual and rational (in opposition to the feeling and with the intuition). Aptitude for To include/understand and to adapt easily to new situations.

Drawn from Terminology of neuropsychology and neurology of the behavior . Seek and réd. Louise Bérubé, 1991.

the intelligence is the capacity with Comprendre a new Contexte, and to react to this new situation in an adapted way.

Richard Atkinson

the intelligence, it is what makes it possible to hear a Musique where others hear only a Bruit.

Jean-Charles Terrassier

the intelligence, modelled by genetic inheritance and the Cultural Environment and emotional, would depend on a subtle balance between a fast mode of treatment of the Information S and a slow mode of analysis of these Donnée S.
Faculté to know, include/understand and to adapt, faculty of abstraction and anticipation or Intuition…. To know, include/understand and to adapt, in a word to show intelligence, one needs that the Perception S and the Sensation S which the central Nervous system receives have a Sens, i.e. different the sensory Stimulus associated, is classified by the structures Cérébrale S necessary to the Data processing and Mémorisé S. the stages of this treatment, for example the speed of Perception of a Stimulus, its Stockage, its evaluation compared to the Information S already Enregistrée S, its analysis and reaction which it starts, are Facteur S of the intelligence.

Tiré from that intelligence? '' Jean-pol. Tassin, in For Science , n°254, December 1998.

the intelligence, that is not what one knows but what one makes when one does not know.

Jean Piaget

Which magic trick returns to us intelligent? The trick, it is that there is no trick. The power of the intelligence comes from our vast diversity, and not from only one perfect principle.

The test of Turing

In the absence of a satisfactory definition for the intelligence, it is difficult to decide if a machine (or an animal) is or not intelligent.

Alan Turing thus proposes to take the man like standard, and to consider that a machine is intelligent if a man is unable to distinguish the object tested from human simultaneously tested. Cf Test of Turing.

Difficulty

It is admitted that the intelligent man is often that which Perçoit as Processus single what its contemporaries see like Phénomène S independent.

Thus, after the intuitions of Galileo and Descartes, Newton understood that the jet of a stone, the rotation of the the Moon and the Marée S concerned same the " mécanisme" , similarity which was not obvious. It Will also perceive as distinct from the Phénomène S which before him were Perçu S like a whole: thus Mass and Weight, or Temperature and Quantity of heat, before the physicists are not worried any.

However, it is necessary well to keep with the Esprit that this last example of intelligence, very characteristic of a certain form of Représentation, is related to the Héliocentrisme. One noted in the Histoire his consequences Sociologique S (see Révolution copernician). The later discoveries of the Physique at the 20th century (three others elementary interactions, Quantum physics) relativize this example, while confirming it on the bottom on the plan of sciences Physique S. This form of intelligence was pushed with its maximum with the thought of Claude Henri de Rouvroy, count of Saint-Simon (see also Philosophie of the networks), who thought that God had been replaced by the Universal gravitation.

A problem is presented by the fact that a person with the Esprit little untied will consider it also as a Phénomène single what its contemporaries see like different, and as various what those see like single. One can realize it by taking again the example above on Newton in the current Contexte, where all these ideas are quite comparable.

It will thus not be possible to slice between a demonstration of intelligence and its absence by another thing only by the test of reality. This Paradoxe was sometimes indicated in the Usenet forums of the group france under the name of Loi of Nadot .

Oceanic cultures

August 1st

Towards a universal definition of the intelligence of “the man”?

Intelligence and aggressiveness

The intelligence does not have probably anything to see with aggressiveness. Many authors in the past tried to bind both, as they tried to limit only the intelligence to human, preferably white and of male sex. These concepts tend to disappear in current research.

Intelligence and human physiology

The development of the brain and the intelligence of the Man was made possible (or at least easier) by many successive adaptations. All are not necessary (the same effect can be the result of other adaptations), but all are a factor of facilitation. Some of them have an increased probability when the man already progressed on the way of the intelligence, and that it already adopted a lifestyle consequently.

The station upright, initially, seems a crucial factor. It releases the Main S, removes them from an aggressive contact with the ground and makes possible an increased sensitivity of the Toucher. It moves the junction cranium - spinal column, which facilitates the development of cranial volume. On the plan of the behavior, it allows a remote action (launching of objects, stones then others more elaborate weapons) particularly useful to a badly armed animal, to as well hold in respect a predator as to badger a prey.

The man is characterized by the very large variety from expressions from his face, and sounds which it can produce with his mouth (and its capacity of imitation of animal sounds). Its face, its jaw and its mouth are adapted in this direction, that can be a big factor for the development of the abstraction, starting from association between the sounds, the things, the feelings and the ideas.

The man is characterized by an unslung, without marked seasonal variation and dissociated sexual behavior of the reproductive cycle of the woman. It is possible that this adaptation balances human aggressiveness.

In the same way, less aggressiveness female (what does not want to say absent!), observed in many species, could be a need, leading to substantial differences of behavior. Although that is politically incorrect and contestable (in particular because of a satisfactory definition of the intelligence), that can explain differences in intelligence (according to the field, in particular) between human male and female.

The young child is, compared to the other mammals, premature (Néoténie). That allows him a considerable growth of the cranium, which if not would make its birth impossible (one can imagine other adaptations having the same effect, but this one made the deal). That makes it also at the same time ready to adopt elaborate techniques of which it does not have by neuronal wiring origin (" instinct"), and dependant on these techniques.

All in all, it appears (in an approach finalist initially) that the Man is built to be intelligent, at the same time on the individual level and the social plan.

In an approach not finalist, since the advances in knowledge in molecular biology, it appears that the man is an intelligent being because its evolutionary context gradually selected the individuals whose physiological characteristics allowed its intellectual development.

Innate and acquired

It is quite obvious that the intelligence is mainly a hereditary feature (if not, a chimpanzee or even an educated dog as human should have the intelligence of human, which is obviously not the case).

It is not less obvious than the intelligence is dependant on the environment, so much by the physical aspects (quality of the food for example) that by the more relational aspects (contrast enters the private children of human care and the others; cf for example Kaspar To raise and children known as “wild”).

That does not prevent the debates without end on the importance respective of the two factors, and on the conclusions to be drawn from a political point of view .

Sir Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, will propose for example to set up a policy of improvement of the mankind, and will invent the term Eugénisme. This point of view will be even dominating at the end of the 19th century and still at the 20th century (myth of the New man - Nikola Tesla will be one of the many partisans). Nowadays, the Extropianisme and to a lesser extent the Transhumanisme lean for a eugenism with human face .

More concretely in the life of the every day, the various opinions on the respective share of heredity and the education often have an impact structuring, though subjacent, on the educational strategies. Thus and for example, if the share innate/hereditary is important, it is necessary to envisage programs adapted to the level (and the type) of intelligence of the children, and to set up a policy aiming much to locate naturally the intelligent children and thus “to select”; in this case, the specific qualities of the children being strongly expressed, of the policies of mixture will have little effect positive and much negative effects (by subjecting the children to an unsuited, too rich or too poor mode intellectual according to the case). Conversely, if the educational share is strong, it is useless to select but on the contrary it is necessary to stimulate, and one can envisage very homogeneous programs; moreover, of the policies of “social diversity” will be able to attenuate the initial differences in intelligence between the children without disadvantage for them.

The theory of the multiple intelligences of Gardner

In the forms of the intelligence (1983 French translation 1997) Howard Gardner, professor of cognitive Psychologie with Harvard put forth the assumption according to which several types of intelligence coexisted at each human being. By studying Individual S suffering of Cerebral disorders , it distinguishes seven types of intelligence. It adds to it then a eighth, the intelligence “naturalist”, and a ninth, the “spiritual one considers some”. These nine forms of the intelligence are:

the intelligence logico-mathematics , which determines the speed to which one can solve a numerical or logical problem. Overexploited by the mathematicians, players of failures…

the intelligence linguistic (or verbal), frequent at the politicians, writers, poets thanks to whom one can build sentences, to have the direction of the rhyme, to convince and persuade the others…

the intrapersonnelle intelligence , which indicates the capacity that one has to have a glance criticizes on oneself, to judge his limits, to include/understand his reactions…

the interpersonal intelligence , thanks to which one can guess the reactions of his entourage, to evaluate the Interaction S, Communiquer… frequent in the politicians.

the visuo-space intelligence , which makes it possible to handle three-dimensional objects in its head. It is exploited in particular by the Architecte S, Géographe S, Artiste S…

the intelligence naturalist , which allows Classer the Objet S, and to differentiate them of categories. Very solicited at the Zoologist S, Botanist S, Archeologist S…

the musical intelligence , which judges the height, the tonality of the sounds, the rate/rhythm and the melody of a Musique. Exploited especially by the Musician S, Type-setter S…

intelligence kinesthetic , which is responsible for all that milked with gestural work… developed at the Sportif S, MIME S, but also those which practice a work meticulousness (Chirurgie NS, Informaticien S…)

Possibly the intelligence Spiritual existentialist or and which is defined by the aptitude to be questioned on the Sens and the origin of the things.

Another definition of the multiple intelligence was defined in five points the intelligence logical, social, musical, manual and Culturelle.

The point which distinguishes the two definitions from intelligence above is that of the cultural intelligence. The cultural intelligence is the function which makes it possible to call upon its Culture to solve a problem while transposing the asset.

Intelligence and creativity

On a continuum pure intelligence - creative Intelligence - intelligent creativity - pure creativity, it is very difficult to make the difference between intelligence and creativity.

The paradigm of the multiple Créativités distinguishing the concrete forms from creativity of the adults gives better an account today of the various forms of talents or intelligence that the theory of the multiple intelligences of Gardner.

Intelligence of the other living beings

August 1st

Is a definition of the entity “intelligence” possible?

If the intelligence of the man and those of the other living beings can be defined, can one define the intelligence independently of the beings which are dependant there. August 1st

See too

Jean Piaget
the Information and the economic Intelligence
emotional Intelligence
collective Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
distributed Intelligence
Theory of the multiple intelligences
Intelligence quotient
Test Binet-Simon
animal Intelligence
ambient Intelligence

One also names intelligence the capacity to include/understand and anticipate the movements of an ally or an adversary, or to communicate with him ( to live in good intelligence ; intelligence with the enemy …). The English language names what is called in a generic way Intelligence in French Renseignement, strategic Veille and sometimes Espionnage. The contemporary economic world using English like Lingua franca, it introduced by this channel the economic term Intelligence. See also Oxymore.

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