Absolutely.! Most people of very high IQ have the potential to master mathematics at the undergraduate level, especially if their high IQ rating came mainly from the mathematical items on the IQ test. However, many very high IQ people are not inspired by mathematics and are more inclined toward other interests. Consequently, they don’t develop much more than an average level of mathematical achievement.
Of course, in this “information age”, the level of mathematics needed by the average citizen is much greater than in past eras. While previous generations were required to have a higher mastery of arithmetic skills (because there were no calculators), this and successive generations require a much deeper understanding of statistics. Knowing how to interpret data, analyze inferences, and fact check claims based on data, demands an understanding of the main concepts of quantitative analysis.
However, it’s important that a significant sector of our highly intelligent people dedicate themselves to subjects outside mathematics, because the frontiers of mathematics are advanced by the small sliver of people who have a unique talent in that subject. Other very high IQ people are required to advance knowledge across the full spectrum of human investigation, from the natural sciences, the social sciences and the arts.
It’s difficult to provide examples of people of very high IQ who had merely an average understanding of mathematics, because IQ tests didn’t evolve until early in the 20th century. However, an oft-told anecdote in the history of mathematics, involves Leonhard Euler, considered the mathematician par excellence in Europe, and Denis Diderot an esteemed French philosopher. Apparently, Euler was tutoring Catherine the Great in mathematics, when she bitterly complained that Diderot was converting Russians to atheism. Euler challenged Diderot to a public theological debate. In full view of all the courtiers, Euler, announcing that he had an algebraic proof of the existence of God, said,
“Sir,
hence God exists; reply!”
Diderot, who had a limited knowledge of algebra was speechless. Embarrassed and unable to respond, he left Russia for Paris.
Other great philosophers and literary giants had very high IQ, based on their achievements in their areas of expertise, yet their mathematical knowledge was close to average. Charles Darwin, one of the most brilliant men of science once graciously stated:
I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance, Huxley. I am therefore a poor critic: a paper or book, when first read, generally excites my admiration, and it is only after considerable reflection that I perceive the weak points. My power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought is very limited; and therefore I could never have succeeded with metaphysics or mathematics.
So if math is not your “thing,” that’s O. K. we need highly intelligent people in all walks of life.
