While writing a book titled, Intelligence, IQ, and Perception, I explored the concept of intelligence and discovered that it has many different dimensions. In some cases, it manifests as a capacity for persuasive oratory or skillful articulation. My models for this dimension of intelligence were Martin Luther King Jr. and Sir Winston Churchill. Both men had an extraordinary gift for articulating ideas in compelling ways. Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech mesmerized a generation and inspired the Civil Rights Movement. An excerpt from the description of his intelligence is given below:
Dr. King’s intelligence was manifest in his ability to create and deliver passionate speeches with highly persuasive metaphors and compelling argumentation–a rare combination of rational thinking combined with interpersonal skill. He honed his skill by studying dictionaries to increase his vocabulary and expand his ability to find the right word to express an idea with eloquence. Clarence P. Jones, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, said that his contribution to King’s speech came only in the first 7 paragraphs. The rest of the written draft came from King, but the “I have a dream portion,” that followed Mahalia Jackson’s call, was purely spontaneous. Commenting on the change that came over King as he launched into that portion of the speech, Jones observed, “I have never seen him speak the way I saw him on that day…It was as if some cosmic transcendental force came down and occupied his body. It was the same body, the same voice, but the voice had something I had never heard before.”
Another dimension of intelligence is manifest in creativity. To model this dimension, I chose Leonardo da Vinci, and Thomas Edison. Leonardo was the quintessential polymath from the Renaissance whose inventive genius spanned science, engineering, art, sculpture and anatomy. As biographer, Walter Isaacson wrote:
What made Leonardo a genius, what set him apart from people who are merely extraordinarily smart, was creativity, the ability to apply imagination to intellect. …What also distinguished Leonardo’s genius was its universal nature. The world has produced other thinkers who were more profound or logical, and many who were more practical, but none who was as creative in so many different fields.
A third dimension of intelligence is manifest in the capacity for abstraction as modelled by Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Einstein’s unique combination of imagination and abstract visualization enabled him to see beyond accepted beliefs about space and time and conceptualize his abstract Theories of Relativity that revolutionized the way we understand our universe. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity was described by physicist Max Born as, “the greatest feat of human thinking about nature, the most amazing combination of philosophical penetration, physical intuition, and mathematical skill.”
To put these dimensions of intelligence in perspective, I include below an excerpt from the book, demonstrating the inherent difficulty in attempting to rank intelligence or intellectual achievements:
In the year 2000, Albert Einstein, widely celebrated as the quintessential genius, was selected by Time Magazine, not as the person of the year, but as the person of the century! Among others being considered for having “the greatest impact on this century, for better or worse,” were Mahatma Gandhi, Adolph Hitler, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr. These people displayed different arrays of intellectual attributes, yet the selection committee of journalists picked Einstein. Choosing a “greatest impact” created a lot of controversy, because comparing the influence of people in different domains requires a judgment about the relative importance of each domain. Journalist Charles Krauthammer suggested that Winston Churchill, rather than Einstein, deserved the accolade, asserting, “If Einstein hadn’t lived, the ideas he produced might have been delayed. But take away Churchill’s stand in 1940, and fascism might well have triumphed.” In short, comparing the importance of the different faces of intelligence is as difficult as comparing the importance of domains of human productive activity.
Indeed, the measurement of intelligence and intellectual achievements is based on matters of judgement derived from personal values. As Justice Potter Stewart of the US Supreme Court once observed, “Intelligence is like porn, difficult to define, but you know it when you see it.”
