Website owner:  James Miller

Theory of intelligence --- IQ concept

     The theory of intelligence is a theory I have always had a 
   problem with --- never been able to accept.  The theory has the 
   following assumptions: 1. One's intelligence is single thing, a 
   quantity that can be measured  2. intelligence corresponds to 
   the ease or speed at which one learns  3. intelligence can be 
   measured by a test, the IQ test.   When I was in high school I 
   felt that the entire idea, the entire theory of intelligence, 
   was a falsehood, a complete untruth, and the primary cause of 
   inferiority complexes.  Moreover, I felt that it was a 
   horrendous crime against humanity and that not only the people 
   who originated the theory but all who accepted it and 
   propagated it were criminals of the highest order 
   (perpetrators of a horrendous moral crime).  The idea 
   was the primary source of my anger and hostility against 
   society.  I made these charges then and I still believe them to 
   be true.  According to this theory the slow person, who is also 
   often the conscientious, careful, deliberate person, is less 
   intelligent than other people.  The theory, by implication, 
   grades people making some mentally inferior to others;  and the 
   slow person is postulated to be inferior.  I contested that 
   idea then and I contest it now.  And I still believe that it is 
   a primary source of inferiority complexes and that it is a 
   terrible crime against humanity.  The person who learns quickly 
   just accepts and believes ideas and doesn't look under the 
   surface and question and examine them; he is more believing and 
   gullible than the careful, conscientious person, less inclined 
   to reflect over the validity of ideas.  Attempting to grade 
   people in this way is absolutely wrong.  The mind is not that 
   simple. 


   Feb 2003