intelligence? may i have some?

(another old one)

The Bell Curve-Intelligence and class structure in American life

by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray

From what i could gather, this book basically dealt with one question "is IQ different among different ethnic groups, in particular between the white and the black?"

Obviously an extremely sensitive issue to discuss in this country, the authors, with a clearly positive answer in their minds, therefore spent painfully lots of time and effort to compile all data and perform all sorts of statistical analyses available in order to convince anyone else. Several interesting points stood out. a) The authors were both harvard professors and were very proud of that fact (high IQ, that meant). b) they tended not to draw conclusions or show their opionions directly although it was pretty apparent what they were leading to, making them a little bit deceiving. c). they did have a very strong social agenda: they were in favor of the tests.

Not necessarily disagreeing with them, but I had been only vaguely interested in the topic before and therefore, not sophisticated enough to form clear and final opinions. This book did raise some interesting questions I enjoy thinking and learning more about.

How is IQ measured? This question was not dealt with in the book (I suppose every native-born American knows so it is not necessary to describe it). I checked out some IQ tests. An IQ test is similar to an "intelligence contest questionaire" we had had back in China when we were kids. It has a few word games; some number crunches; several visual/spatial questions and a couple of logical reasonings.

Is IQ equivalent to intelligence? I thought this over after reading the book. It seems to me IQ does measure some aspects of intelligence; however, with all these years after school, I hesitate to say it is all that matters. In other words, there are other aspects of human intelligence not as easily measurable but as important, if not more important, as what IQ is able to show; and it is not clear to me that they correlate with one another.

Then what is intelligence? I do not have a satisfying definition yet. I will surly include language mastering, number crunching, and logical reasoning; but I would also emphasize creativity, imagination, capability of independent thinking and probably common sense. Another sticky point is that some people excel in one particular aspect or two; while some are pretty good overall. A comprehensive test would probably favor the latter while in real life, the former could simply do wonders. From a totally different perspective, intelligence might be difficult to define and harder to test, but one can usually "feel" all these qualities through human-human interactions.

Is one person's intelligence comparable to another? If one believes in IQ, the answer would be "yes", because it gives each individual a particular number (and it is mostly within 200 points). I am not so sure. Just like any other human behaviour traits, to me, individual intelligence is remarkably complex, diverse and unique. Every individual is distinctively unique and intelligent in his own way - so I believe.

I am also interested in how intelligence or the attempt to measure it plays its roles in a given society. Is it fair to determine one's destiny by exams or one exam? Is it fair to select people based on criteria other than exams, or besides exams? What is an ideal society, a "made fair" or a "natural one"? Well, I know too little to say. I do know this book represents one of many many opinions on these issues.