Intelligence

First thought about this one day on a run (maybe i was walking... an excursion)- i was trying to distinguish between
- Wisdom
- Intelligence
- Ignorance &
- Stupidity.

I don't think i went in order. I seem to remember something like:

Intelligence: being able to ??? (learn new information quickly??? too long ago to remember)
Wisdom: being able to use intelligence for good ends (this is probably at least 5 years later, but it was something to that effect)
Ignorance: not knowing something you should know
Stupidity: not wanting to learn/ use something you sould know

Ha! I blogged it (in inverse order). No wonder i could remember it:

"IGNORANCE: not knowing something you should know
STUPIDITY: not caring that you don't know something you should know; being unwilling to learn
INTELLIGENCE: grasping and utilizing relevant knowledge
WISDOM: knowing when/ how to use intelligence and other virtues to produce good"

So, anyways, then i went on to work with kids and started wondering more about intelligence.

Today, I found 70+ Definitions of Intelligence while gasping for metaphorical mental air at the waaay too deep and educated (for me) less wrong pro-rationality website.

However, a bit back, i realized that i'd already started coming to a working understanding of intelligence... mostly thanks to concrete examples of it in my kids. My school counselor gave me a super-helpful "Gifted/ Talented" indicator list to identify kids for G/T testing. The education industry emphasizes Bloom's taxonomy almost-achingly, but i think, in the long term it's been productive to my understanding.

Basically:
Intelligence is...
... being able to precisely understand new information.... quickly. (I could say "internalize," but that's a little wordy.)
... being able to make legitimate, often creative connections between two things.
... applying information to solve problems or create new things... or do both at the same time.

The first two defs would include classification, i think.

Even more simply:
1) understand precisely
2) connect legitimately
3) solve problems (creatively)

The first definition would also cover "identifying discrepancies," i think. Hmmmmm... how to argue and persuade... Where would that fit? Probably under "connect legitimately" and "solve problems." ...connect my belief to your values to the point where you could see my belief as fulfilling your values. Oops. I forgot communication. Persuasion requires good communication.

... communicating ideas precisely/ creatively.
4) articulating effectively

Dunno the worth of all this. Too much joyous reading of Leah Libresco just inspired me to pontificate on what all those smart people've got, i guess.