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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Intelligence, Knowledge, and Wisdom




What are the differences, if any, between these concepts? It seems to be that there is often confusion.  Relatively few people realize that there is a difference. Let us take a closer look at these concepts.

Let's start with intelligence.

Intelligence is the measure of an individual's innate aptitude of critical thinking and rote memory. An IQ test is our best way of measuring aptitude. There are many different types of IQ tests that are composed of  measuring different types of intelligence. Often these tests are collectively aggregated in a battery and given a score of g, or general intelligence. The amount of information a person's mind is able to retain varies from each individual.

Examples:

EXAMPLE 1: ROTE MEMORIZATION - If we were to give an individual a string of two digit numbers and ask him to repeat them in the same order, how many two digit numbers would the individual be able to memorize? How many would he be able to memorize backwards? How about ten minutes later?

EXAMPLE 2: Critical Thinking - Can an individual rotate 3-dimentional images? If so, to what complexity?


Studies have revealed that there is only so much that can be done to boost an individuals performance on an IQ test(see Arthur A. Jenson, How Much can we boost IQ & Scholastic Achievement?). Intelligence as measured by IQ is a measure of the processing speed and power of an individuals brain. Not much different then measuring the processing speed and strength of a computer. There may be external things that we can do to slightly boost the computers performance(keeping the temperature cool, dusting out the tower, not tossing the unit around), but the majority of the performance depends on the hardware and software being used.

Knowledge is a familiarity or accumulation of facts with certain subjects or activities. In contrast with intelligence, it does not require the beholder to have a high measure of aptitude in order to have gained a sizable amount of knowledge on any range of subjects. The intelligence level of an individual may however limit the rate at which an individual obtains knowledge. An individual with a high intelligence may lack knowledge on a range of subjects that other individuals have acquired. As a result, this may place an individual with a high intelligence at a disadvantage relative to others as a result.

EXAMPLE: Through a combination of years of work in the field of construction and a series of classes, a foreman has acquired a high level of facts and information relative to his field of construction. It is the accumulation of this information that we call knowledge.



Wisdom is the ability take knowledge from one's own experience or the experiences of another and apply it to real life. It does not require a particularly high intelligence, though people often perceive that those who wield it do. It is probably true that those with a high aptitude may display wisdom on a higher average as compared with others. Nevertheless, an accumulation of knowledge will definitely allow one to to act in a wise manner more often regardless of his aptitude because he has the tools of facts and information that he can reference before taking action.

Having a greater understanding and insight into these concepts, perhaps you can try to identify them in yourself and others. We may notice that some individuals might not have a particularly high aptitude, but what actions can be taken to counter that? Acquiring a large amount of knowledge will make it easier for us to take wise action by referencing accumulated facts. This process will lead to better results in our lives. Not just for ourselves, but for our families, communities, and societies.

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