who is the smartest?

[the_botanist]

I would like to ask who is the smartest?

• people who use eyes as their most important sense
• poeple who use ears as their more important sense
• people who use touch as their most important sense
• people who use smell as their most important sense
  
  Thanks for your ideas:)

[Mucius_Scevola]

ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/vi … p?t=150576

Copywright of faust Ltd.

[Mick_in_England]

Helen Keller became blind and deaf after an illness as a baby, but when she got older she learned to communicate by tapping fingers with people in a kind of “language”.
When somebody asked her via that method years later “What’s it like to be told about Jesus for the first time?”, she replied “I always knew he was there”…
So I’d say her perception was pretty good despite being blind and deaf

“Helen Adams Keller was born on 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia, a small rural town in Northwest Alabama, USA. The daughter of Captain Arthur Henley Keller and Kate Adams Keller she was born with full sight and hearing.
But Helen’s life was to change dramatically. In February 1882, when Helen was nineteen months old, she fell ill. To this day the nature of her ailment remains a mystery. The doctors of the time called it “brain fever”, whilst modern day doctors think it may have been scarlet fever or meningitis.
Whatever the illness, Helen was, for many days, expected to die. When, eventually, the fever subsided, Helen’s family rejoiced believing their daughter to be well again.
However, Helen’s mother soon noticed how her daughter was failing to respond when the dinner bell was rang or when she passed her hand in front of her daughter’s eyes”…
rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/pu … eller.hcsp

[the_botanist]

Thanks for this great poem. I like it very, very much.

Philosophers famous for using their eyes
To tell them the diff’rence between truth and lies
Will tell you to sharpen your reason with vision
To get where they’re at - to rise where they’ve risen

But some will say that it’s not vision so much
As the skill to philosophise as if by touch
That has given them truth, that has brought them the light
As if thinking is really some kind of a fight

And still others will swear that their ears are the key
As they listen intently to ev’ry decree
For the chorus they hear is a wonderful song
It’s a symphony playing that cannot be wrong

Yet there’s also the type who will point out with haste
That philosophy’s merely a matter of taste
We are all just as smart and it’s really quite fine
That we all know enough - we cannot draw a line

But when all’s said and done, as we look o’er the field
To see all of the fruits that our thinking might yield
While we’ll always find thorns as we search for the rose
The most sense we can make, we can make by our nose

Who wrote it? Faust D? Who was he?

Story of Helen Keller is rather famous but I think people who use eyes as their most important sense are the most inteligent.
I don’t know why.
I am also not sure what it means to be inteligent. I am very poor at kinesthetic aspect of life.
Is it good to be more inteligent than others? I think sometimes it is a real tragedy because you are starting to laugh at stupidity/lack of common sense/logic of other people, they become angry and kick you in your ass:(.
So maybe it is better to be very stupid?

[Faust]

I wrote it. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Faust]

Oh - back to your point - you may wish to explore the role of language here, botanist. Much “intelligence” is vocabulary and the ability to articulate thoughts, and to understand the thoughts of others. Our language has a prejudice toward visual imagery, because we use our eyes more than we do other senses to discover the world.

But is this all there is to intelligence? Is intelligence one thing? Are there different kinds of intelligence extant to different degrees in different people?

I think the eyes are for scientific knowledge, broadly defined.

The nose is the philosopher’s friend.

Artists experience life with their skin best - they are thinskinned - a virtue, believe it or not.

Ears are best-used by the noble savage types - the naturalists.

Taste is for the young, and the young at heart. They still know what it is and what adventure is.

The smartest is the one that can use all well. That’s a gimme.

You don’t have a question, here, botanist, you have many. Constantly answering them all is not a bad life plan.

I will answer them all differently at a later time.

Hopefully.

[Twilight_of_the_Idol (Twilight of the Idols)]

@the_botanist

Who wrote it? Faust D? Who was he?

@faust

I wrote it. Glad you enjoyed it.

Sorry, this adds nothing to the thread, but that was a classic ILP moment. =D>

[NoHotDogBuns]

I don’t think any specific sense coincides with intelligence, and since we really have no way of judging intelligence with complete accuracy, that statement is hard to refute. Each sense gives us a different perspective of the world our body lives in, and that is that. Intelligence does not have an esoteric corelation with any individual senses, and if someone can prove this wrong, you will rock the foundations of a large part of my (mis?)conceptions, pertaining to psychology.

So fire away guys, I love to learn!

[the_botanist]

The nose is the philosopher’s friend.

How did you learn it?

But is this all there is to intelligence? Is intelligence one thing? Are there different kinds of intelligence extant to different degrees in different people?

Very often some people laugh at others. Why does it happen? Who is smarter? The one who laughs because he/she finds a reason to be so amused. And now looking at your opinions:

Much “intelligence” is vocabulary and the ability to articulate thoughts, and to understand the thoughts of others.

What is sense of humor then - a component of ones inteligence or not?

You don’t have a question, here, botanist, you have many. Constantly answering them all is not a bad life plan.

I like putting questions and obtaining answers. It is part of my lifestyle as it seems to me. Personally I think that the day I will stop asking will be last day of my real life.
You?

[Faust]

I learnt it from Nietzsche. I often use humor to give a little impromptu IQ test. A sense of irony requires a bit of intelligence, because the logical connections of irony are just a bit more complicated than “straight” talk.

It’s all about the questions, baby. That’s what a philosopher does. That’s what a philosopher has to do. No one really chooses this path. It’s just what we are.

The “nose” thing can be understood two ways.

Our sense of smell is easily and fruitfully seen as a more “honest” sense than the others. It’s not as connected to language as is sight or sound and not as confusing as touch or taste, because it is less “intimate” than these - we can be more disinterested. Take that for what you will.

But it can also serve as a metaphor for a combination of all of the senses - we are used to seeing this in literature, that the sense of smell is somehow more “primitive”. Some say that we choose mates this way, but that we are unconscious of this. I don’t mean this very literally, in any event.

Also, I dashed that poem off in about the time it took me to type it. I meant it mostly as an amusement. But humor is not alien to truth - it just looks at truth magnanimously.

[Mick_in_England]

Botanist quote - I am also not sure what it means to be inteligent. I am very poor at kinesthetic aspect of life.
Is it good to be more inteligent than others?

In God’s eyes humans consist of winners and losers.
His son was a winner, Jesus said “I’ve beaten the world” (John 16:33)
And we can become winners too, God doesn’t care about our school grades or college degrees etc -
“Who is it that beats the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5)

[the_botanist]

Hello:)

I learnt it from Nietzsche.

I believe Nietzsche was very crazy in his views:(. I sometimes try to find a moment in history when philosophy had started to produce people whose ideas later contributed to general disaster of humanity:(
Maybe Nietsche was first? All in all Greek philosophers weren’t so controversial and still aren’t as it seems to me.

It’s all about the questions, baby.

I am not a baby, baby:(.

Is it good to be more inteligent than others?

Hmmm… great question. I think it is good but you should keep it to yourself then. Others can be jealous and throw you down from your personal monument of your own glory.

Read you soon.
the_botanist

[Faust]

Botanist - the greeks were controversial at the time, most often. The zeitgeist has changed a bit since then, so it may not be so noticeable to the unpractised eye.

I think my use of “baby” might be a generational thing. Think “1960’s”. I am very old.

[the_botanist]

Well… I am from the late 70ties. But I am not from English speaking country so I understand US culture much worse than you. I am from Poland if you want to know and I practise my English here. But not only. I think I could be a good philosopher but somehow it had happened I became a …botanist rather.
Well… personally I think Greek philosophers didn’t start any nasty ideologies that killed crowds and masses. But maybe I am mistaken. Can I ask if you are professional philosopher?
cheers,

[Gwyllgi]

@faust

It’s all about the questions, baby. That’s what a philosopher does. That’s what a philosopher has to do. No one really chooses this path. It’s just what we are.

Oh, baby, you sound just like an intellectual dirty harry.

@faust

But it can also serve as a metaphor for a combination of all of the senses - we are used to seeing this in literature, that the sense of smell is somehow more “primitive”. Some say that we choose mates this way, but that we are unconscious of this. I don’t mean this very literally, in any event.

I think this is key to the basis of intelligence…its not those who live by any one unique smell thats more intelligent…but those who hold equality amongst all the senses. I.E. the combination of all, as mentioned. But moreso, I think that the person lacking all the senses, the other end of the extreme, may well also be an example of extreme intellectual function (hellen keller). What this comes down to then, is that both are biproducts of a third, and possibly fourth, ingredient: Quality of mind. Those who rely heavily on a single sense specialize in utilizing a specific part of the brain—making them seem smarter or better so long as they stay within their sphere of power. Once they leave it, however, they’re just as susceptable to “Dumb as a brick” syndrome as the rest of us. Those that use all equally, though not excelling in any one area, are more apt to be the Jack of all trades, with insights into different areas (or, missing the third factor, base intelligence, they can be just plain ADHD).

Perhaps what I’m getting at is this: The use of specific senses is a sympton of intellectual pairing, rather than a cause. An identifying symptom, but still just a symptom, as readily absent as a fever within a flu.

As for the possible fourth variable, that, as always, falls as the jurisdiction of environmental conditioning. Grow a wolf in a sheep’s pen, odds are they won’t disappear. Bring a wild wolf in, and you’re as dumb as a fucknut on a tuesday night’s dinner roast.

@faust

But humor is not alien to truth - it just looks at truth magnanimously.

Well said, well said.

[Faust]

Botanist - I am not a professional. I work in restaurants, in a variety of capacities. I think I heard Obw groan as he read your question.

Gwyllgi - I may say what you are in a different way, here. It’s useful to be able to process as much information as seems pertinent, and to be able to discern that pertinence as well as possible. This results in more inclusive and detailed pattern recognition, and it is pattern recognition that we usually mean by intelligence. You need to work with what you’ve got, however.

[Gwyllgi]

@faust

Gwyllgi - I may say what you are in a different way, here. It’s useful to be able to process as much information as seems pertinent, and to be able to discern that pertinence as well as possible. This results in more inclusive and detailed pattern recognition, and it is pattern recognition that we usually mean by intelligence. You need to work with what you’ve got, however.

Heh. Thats pretty much what I was trying to get at. Thanks for finding an easier phrasing (sometimes, my mind doesn’t work too well at simplifying things).

[Justly]

@the_botanist

I would like to ask who is the smartest?

• people who use eyes as their most important sense
• poeple who use ears as their more important sense
• people who use touch as their most important sense
• people who use smell as their most important sense
  
  Thanks for your ideas:)

=========
the sense of smell is probably the least developed of all our senses. then maybe taste, then touch, sight, and according to medical books and there are proofs also that the sense of hearing is the last to go before one joins the unknown. The sense of smell needs to be studied more. But your question who is the smartest? Listen to your inner voice and intuition.

[dan020350]

definitely not psychologist.

[the_botanist]

Thanks for all your letters in this thread. Very are really interesting. The one, beneath, is the best (my opinion)

I think this is key to the basis of intelligence…its not those who live by any one unique smell thats more intelligent…but those who hold equality amongst all the senses. I.E. the combination of all, as mentioned. But moreso, I think that the person lacking all the senses, the other end of the extreme, may well also be an example of extreme intellectual function (hellen keller). What this comes down to then, is that both are biproducts of a third, and possibly fourth, ingredient: Quality of mind. Those who rely heavily on a single sense specialize in utilizing a specific part of the brain—making them seem smarter or better so long as they stay within their sphere of power. Once they leave it, however, they’re just as susceptable to “Dumb as a brick” syndrome as the rest of us. Those that use all equally, though not excelling in any one area, are more apt to be the Jack of all trades, with insights into different areas (or, missing the third factor, base intelligence, they can be just plain ADHD).

But what do you mean - who is the smartest? I still think that people who use eyes as their most important sense are the kennest. But you should not forget about the rest of senses, of course.
Personally I still think that generally the smartest are those who can survive. Not the ones that can win the chess match or belong to MENSA even.
It is my opinion. What is yours?

Botanist - I am not a professional. I work in restaurants, in a variety of capacities. I think I heard Obw groan as he read your question.

I am a teacher. And I do my research.

Read you soon:)