In Reply to: Critical intelligence posted by Miguel on September 22, 2004 at 20:33:38:
Miguel, I'm wondering if you've read this book or are you just commenting on the concept of critical intelligence? I don't know about your claim that Kurtz is advancing a pro-intellectual elitest agenda. I'm not defending him, because I simply don't know, but I am curious to know if your claim is based on having actually read his stuff or just on assumptions you make about him as a famous person.
I debated whether to submit my original post to this board or to the academic board. I decided here because I am reading this book to help me understand my own experiences. This is very personal to me and is not merely an academic endeavour. This is part of my journey and I figured that if I find this book helpful, maybe others will too.
I'm not entirely clear what you're trying to say. The reason that I cited the passages from Kurtz on critical intelligence was not because I make a value judgement about other peoples' intelligence, but because (1) my critical thinking skills were never developed which resulted in me joining and staying in TF and (2) children who were/are raised in TF were/are not able to develop their critical intelligence, imo, which is essential to surviving in this world, and thus they become totally dependant on TF.
There may be many theories concerning intelligence, knowledge, learning, education, etc., all of which are probably best discussed in any detail in the Academic board. Here I am just trying to document some of the things I'm going through and learning, and one of the biggest ones for me is understanding how I got sucked into TF's world view.
Btw, from what I've read so far, Kurtz does not believe, as you suggest, that people lacking in critical thinking are unable to overcome that lack. Just the contrary, if I'm reading him right, he thinks this is a skill that everyone one has to some degree and which anyone can develop further. Here's a few more quotations on the subject:
"Critical intelligence refers to a capacity or disposition of the mind, a method, attitude, or approach that can be used to understand, discern, and assess relationships and to cope with problems. The application of critical intelligence may be thwarted by obstacles encountered by nature, by other persons, or by ourselves. It is sometimes used effectively; at other times it may lie dormant."
"Intelligence can be dormant and untapped, suppressed and squandered, or it can be focused by a highly motivated person." [This describes me to a "T". I had no idea how intelligent I was while in TF. My intelligence lay dormant, untapped, suppressed and squandered. Once I left, I became highly motivated, more like obsessed, to prove to myself that I wasn't stupid. At least by university standards, it turns out that I was quite intelligent (in the ordinary sense of that word).]
"Critical refers to the probing and analytical application of intelligence to a problem or hypothesis; it appraises evidence and evaluates ideas; it sees relationships and infers conclusions. Like a pruning knife it can be a powerful instrument, enabling us to get to the heart of an issue, to repair and correct deficiences, to discover new truths and discard misconceptions."
"A person can possess high intelligence and yet lack the critical component. Such a person's general intellectual ability may be diffuse. The critical element is the focusing power, which enables him or her to grasp the essentials in complex intellectual and practical questions and to resolve them."
"There are many synonyms for critical intelligence: common sense, practical experience, good judgement, and soundness of mind. And there are others. A person is sensible, balanced, reasonable. He is level-headed, judicious, prudent, sober-minded, clear-headed, discriminating. He is sagacious, astute, and has acumen. He is hard-headed, foresighted, far-sighted. The antonyms of critical intelligence are gullibility, ignorance, irrationality, being impressionable, naive, dense, stupid. Perhaps I have overstated the case pro and con. It is more a question of degree than kind. Yet no human - save an infant or imbecile - can live and function in nature and society without some degree of critical intelligence."