CHAPTER 3
INTELLIGENCE
Section I
what is intelligence?
We all recognize that some persons are "smarter" than others. They reason more quickly and accurately (particularly- about abstract questions,. and usually more readily and retain information longer than other persons do. We say that such persons possess the attribute of "intelligence." Unfortunately. like many commonly used words. the word intelligence is hard to define precisely. In this book. I shall use as a working definition of intelligence: "general reasoning ability. and in particular the ability to carry out and understand abstract reasoning."
Not everyone. however, uses the word in that fashion. Howard Gardner.
for example. in his theory of multiple intelligences, lists at least seven different types of intelligence.' including musical intelligence (as exemplified by the composer Igor Stravinsky and
bodly-kinesthetic intelligence (as exemplified by the dancer Martha Graham,. While it is clear that Stravinsky and Graham possessed exceptional talents, referring to those talents as "intelligences" merely serves to obfuscate discussions of intelligent ability.'
The reader. of course. is free to use whatever termenology he or she prefers. In this book, however. the term "intelligence" will be used only in the sense of the word stated in the first paragraph.
The advantages of this definition are:
• It accords fairly well with common usage.
• It is very close to such common dictionary definitions as "the ability to acquire and retain knowledge and "use of the faculty of reason to solving problems." (It also resembles the dictionary' definition of intellect as "the ability to think abstractly or profoundly-►
• It seems to describe the faculty that is actually measured in standard intelli-gence tests.
In any event intelligence is not the same thing as knowledge. Memorizing a page from a telephone book increases your store of knowledge. but it does not make you any smarter.
Since a more intelligent person has a greater ability to acquire and retain