Defining Intelligence

I’ve been thinking recently about what intelligence really is, and I’ve come up with my own definition. My definition is probably influenced by previous knowledge and what I have read or encountered during my life, but as far as I know the definition is uniquely mine.

First off, knowledge is different from intelligence. Knowledge is information. Intelligence is what you do with the information. Smart is probably best used as a synonym for intelligent, but I think in general people also use it to describe someone who possesses a lot of knowledge, which does not necessarily make them intelligent.

Intelligence is one’s ability to retain, apply, synthesize, and integrate knowledge, and the speed at which they can do so.

The ability to retain of knowledge is important, because that retention is what allows the use of knowledge. Retention is comprised of two things, storage and recall. Storage is important, and the ability to store knowledge is important, but useless without the ability to recall said knowledge. The length of retention is a factor, but a person with a short memory may still be quite intelligent. Retention of knowledge is more related to the ability to keep a piece of knowledge in your mind while you are applying, synthesizing from, or integrating it. You can’t apply something if you don’t know it. Retention also speeds up the process of thinking, because you don’t need to spend time looking for the information. Notice that the amount of knowledge is not a factor, because the amount of knowledge that one possesses is merely a function of how much they have been exposed to. Someone may have memorized the entire phone book, but that does not make them intelligent. Some argue that retention is outdated, because in the current age of the internet, information is readily available. I would argue that retention is still relevant because the internet is much less efficient if you don’t know what you are looking for, and recall from the brain is always going to be faster than going to computer and googling something.

Application of knowledge is the ability to take a piece of knowledge and then know what to do with it and how to use it. Knowledge is related to other pieces of knowledge, and the ability to recognize those connections and use that knowledge is important when measuring in intelligence. If you don’t have a clue where that piece of knowledge might be potentially useful, you can’t use it. Using your knowledge is what application of knowledge is all about. Application of knowledge is part of the process that people refer to as thinking. The other two parts of thinking are the synthesis and integration of knowledge.

The synthesis of knowledge refers to someone’s ability to create knowledge or ideas from other knowledge. An example of this concept is when you lose your shoe, you formulate the idea that you someone may have stolen it. You have no clue where your shoe is, but given the fact that it is missing, you come up with a hypothesis that can be tested. Once new information has been synthesized, it can then be integrated and applied. The ability to take a piece of knowledge and extrapolate it to other things is part of how people learn, and is also part of thinking.

Integration of knowledge is taking two separate pieces of knowledge, and connecting them. Integration is not about using the knowledge, but rather figuring out how it relates to other things. Integration of knowledge is what allows for the application of knowledge. In the grand scheme of things, integration of knowledge is what forms the basis of our opinions and preconceptions, because we associated one piece of knowledge with others. The ability to integrate knowledge is the last component of thought.

Given two people that have identical abilities to retain, apply, synthesize, and integrate knowledge, the person who has can do those things faster is the more intelligent. It is important to note that is not the person who does them faster in real life, but rather the person who has the capability to do them faster. This makes relative intelligence hard to gauge, and the speed at which they do so impossible to gauge. We can get an estimate of the speed at which someone retain, apply, synthesize, and integrate knowledge, but it is just an estimate, and is not entirely accurate. Indeed I can’t think of a way to accurately measure intelligence. Intelligence tests (IQ tests) are a good estimate, but they are not entirely accurate, and may not fully capture someone’s intelligence.

 

 

~ by bradleylarson on December 15, 2008.