Thread: Intelligence itself

Hello i hope this is right forum to post theses questions.

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hello,

I have few questions what i want discuss.

How we define intelligent?
How we know something is intelligent?
Are people with brain retardation intelligent? Are animals intelligent? Are plants intelligent?

Some people see humans and few animals intelligent, but in this viewpoint how it come other same evolved creatures is not intelligent but in lower form (not intelligently considered animals and/or plants)? Is self-aware most important factor considering something intelligent?
There is people who consider everything what have life are intelligent including plants, arguments for this often is that they are not passive entities and should be considered intelligent based on their ability to sense the environment and adjust their morphology, physiology and phenotype accordingly.

What your view on this topic?

The definition of intelligence is controversial. Some groups of psychologists have suggested the following definitions:
From "Mainstream Science on Intelligence" (1994), an editorial statement by fifty-two researchers:
A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—"catching on," "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do.[5]
From "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" (1995), a report published by the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association:
Individuals differ from one another in their ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, to overcome obstacles by taking thought. Although these individual differences can be substantial, they are never entirely consistent: a given person's intellectual performance will vary on different occasions, in different domains, as judged by different criteria.

Concepts of "intelligence" are attempts to clarify and organize this complex set of phenomena. Although considerable clarity has been achieved in some areas, no such conceptualization has yet answered all the important questions, and none commands universal assent. Indeed, when two dozen prominent theorists were recently asked to define intelligence, they gave two dozen, somewhat different, definitions.


Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving.
Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in animals and in plants. Artificial intelligence is the simulation of intelligence in machines.
Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence have been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the general public, as well as being the most researched and by far the most widely used in practical settings


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...mNR9k_vDNzBXxw

So if i say penguins/plant/chimp is intelligent i would be wrong by some definition and correct by some other because definition of intelligence is controversial?
If i say plants is intelligent is automatically mean all other higher living forms is also intelligent because they have same abilities and additional ones?

"It has been argued that plants should also be classified as being in some sense intelligent based on their ability to sense the environment and adjust their morphology, physiology and phenotype accordingly." on same wikipedia page you linked

Originally Posted by rfonline

If i say plants is intelligent is automatically mean all other higher living forms is also intelligent because they have same abilities and additional ones?

If only nature were so tidy as to be easily categorized this way. Plants, bats and many other organisms often have unique characteristics that under some definitions are considered intelligence, but are unique.

Originally Posted by rfonline

So if i say penguins/plant/chimp is intelligent i would be wrong by some definition and correct by some other because definition of intelligence is controversial?
If i say plants is intelligent is automatically mean all other higher living forms is also intelligent because they have same abilities and additional ones?

"It has been argued that plants should also be classified as being in some sense intelligent based on their ability to sense the environment and adjust their morphology, physiology and phenotype accordingly." on same wikipedia page you linked

Different things have different forms of intelligence so each thing is unique and has a greater or lesser degree of intelligence.

So we should classify intelligence as something found in life as default because living beings are not passive entities but just in different living organisms there is different unique level/form of intelligence?
So claim "plant is intelligent" is true/false or depends from something?
I suppose It obvious claim "plant is same intelligent as human" is false.

So we should classify intelligence as something found in life as default because living beings are not passive entities but just in different living organisms there is different unique level/form of intelligence?

Yes, I'd think so.

So claim "plant is intelligent" is true/false or depends from something?

Plants are intelligent some more than others just like humans.

I suppose It obvious claim "plant is same intelligent as human" is false.

Correct. Plants have a much different form of intelligence than humans and are unique.

Isn't intelligence an adaptive trait? I was just thinking, has intelligence given the human species the means to forego certain evolved physical traits that lower intelligences require for survival, I'm thinking things like body armor, camouflage, speed, etc?

Intelligence is the state of having abilities that result from something a person's mind does.


Just like physical strength is a physical ability. But there is also coordination and speed and a few other important physical traits.

For some reason we're able to divide physical ability into categories, but we have a harder time dividing our mental ability into categories. There are different things a person might excel at, like abstract thought, memory, perceptiveness, will, discipline, social adjustment, and probably a number of others I haven't thought of.

Rarely do you find a single person who possesses all traits. However if a being has no abilities resulting from intelligence, then that would be an objective way to judge whether their intelligence is "intelligence" or just nonsense.

When you look at a person's muscles, you ask: "What can those muscles do?". That's the same question we should ask when we look at a person's mind. The only problem is that sometimes the mind achieves things, and it is not obvious that those things were caused by that mind. Like social adjustment - sometimes it's hard to tell whether it is a coincidence, or the result of a kind of design.