What is Intelligence?

Here's one of the best essays on the nature of intelligence, by one of my heroes, Isaac Asimov.

Comments

[Bobby]

Isaak Asimov is a great russian SF writer. But IMHO not Isaak, but Aizek? Or it is two different one?

[Gardner]

Interesting essay, and I like Asimov generally, but I don't buy his argument at all, unless what he's saying is that worth as a human being is not linked to sheer cognitive horsepower, in which case I agree with him wholeheartedly. But to say that his own intelligence is merely a cultural construct seems to me to be pretty disingenuous. That's not to say I endorse current measures of intelligence as perfect or final, but the idea of "G," a generalized cognitive ability, has a fair amount of research to back it.

The Wikipedia's article on intelligence is pretty interesting.

I'm not arguing against all of what Asimov is saying, but it's reductive and, in its own reversed way, a bit too self-congratulatory for me. I am glad to have read it, however. Thanks for the link.