What makes someone a genius - my super-smart husband who missed a grand total of 2 on the GRE after completely failing to study or my mother who always seems to know how to handle delicate situations? And please don't feed me Howard Gardner's theories, I really can't stand him.
I wonder about this a lot. How many people out there are just smart enough to realize they are good, but will never be truly great? I often get frustrated with myself in this way, though as I get older I realize that if I can just do one thing really well I will be content. This is not fair - I suppose we are all good at something (don't even start with H. Gardner!), but what really makes a genius?
Newton gave up any hope of a "normal" life searching for scientific truths. However, he also worked nearly constantly. . .does this mean if we all quit blogging and started reading and studying more we could all be great thinkers?
I feel like I could really handle the pressures of being a genius. So why am I not a genius? Okay, okay, considering my family history I guess I'm moving up, but how long is this going to take? Any neurosurgeons out there with some electrodes that might spark my genius centers?
What about someone like Abraham Joshua Heschel? Truly a great man and great thinker, but was he a genius? Who was smarter - Gandhi or Einstein?
What about genetics? Here's where people get pissed off. But we can say that certain breeds of dogs are smarter, and we can breed rats who are smarter or dumber. . .so why doesn't breeding count? We know there are many great male thinkers, but where are the women? Where are all of the black geniuses? Perhaps we have different innate abilities and disabilities (I hate Howard Gardner!).
Is there anyone doing this kind of research? I mean, without the political baggage attached to it. I want to know. I want answers! Oh, and by the way, Mozart definitely doesn't make anyone smarter, but Brahms might. . .
addendum: I absolutely am not racist. In fact, I think I make more effort than your average to understand people and to treat everyone with dignity and respect; I am just curious. Please don't misunderstand my questioning.
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5 comments:
I've wondered about the same thing, too. A lot! What makes for intelligence is a really sticky issue, and last I heard cognitive scientists cannot agree on any definition, concept, or explanation of the term.
I tend to think that 'genius' is just a subjective way to refer to people whose achievements seem really extraordinary. For example, people say Michael Jackson was a genius (albeit a lunatic). Also it covers those domains where "intelligence" isn't appropriate like the arts. Notice that it's a really ad hoc term; people only become geniuses after the fact. There's no way to detect "genius" other than by performance, so it seems that "genius" is a term for unique extraordinary achievements that really, really impress us. I don't know, it seems like there's something subjective about it.
Oh, about the genetics thing. The fact that we can't name as many female and minority figures as white males ones can be explained by the simple fact that women and minorities have been shut out of history due to an enormous number of circumstances brought about by prejudice and discrimination.
It could be that these things happened AND these historically disadvantaged groups are also less smart. I suppose these two are perfectly consistent. But the fact that in the last century, just about in every domain including literature, arts, science(?), and philosophy, there have been female and minorities popping up seems to disprove theories that imply white men are genetically superior. (Just in Philosophy, although women are still in the minority, there have been considerably more great women thinkers than in the past. If it was a genetic thing, you wouldn't see this pattern.)
There's also the whole issue with scholarship. I recall reading studies that investigated why historians study particular people and events and it turns out to be more personal than thought (we often want to study those that are like *us*). So a lot of great figures of history probably were forgotten because of the subjective nature of scholarship.
(I know you were just wondering it and didn't meant to imply anything racist, and I definitely have wondered the same things.)
You have a great mind Isa - perhaps more women like you will change my mind and quell my fears. Clara Schumann was a very good composer, but most people don't even know about her.
I think a lot of it is attitude. Even someone who is basically average can accomplish a lot if they really want it. Issac Stern (violinist) comes to mind.
Maybe my next post should be about desire. . .
Damn, I spelled Isaac Stern's name incorrectly and can't figure out how to edit my post.
Thanks! I agree that attitude matters a lot. The study with women in math comes to mind (they had a group of women read a fake news story which said that women were genetically worse at math, and another group not read this fake story. Then they took a math test. The second group did considerably better than the first!)
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