A reflection on the property of intelligence

Sometimes, I think that the concept of intelligence is just a social construct and that there isn’t really a concept of intelligence. It seemed to me that one’s consciousness is all there is to one’s state of beinghood in the world, and the concept of intelligence seems strange to me in the sense it seems like an external trait that affects the notion of consciousness and his individuality. But the concept of intelligence is one that is acknowledeged by people in this world, or those around me. Even the likes of very intelligent people like Bertrand Russell recognize this property of intelligence and acknowledge amongst themselves that one of their kind is smarter than the others. There is the likes of IQ test developed by intelligent people working in the field of psychometry.

I suppose there is some fallacy in the way I attribute my sense of awareness from my consciousness as that representing all other human beings, and identify other human being based on the experience from my own consciousness. But this consciousness that I have is dependent on the physiological construct that compose my being, one of them being intelligence which is based on the structure of my brain. And I think that my experience from my consciousness is the representation of that which is experienced by all other human beings such as I. Thus, when I see behavior of the kind that is different from mine, I think of such behavior as unnatural, because I am puzzled as to how such a being with a consciousness such as mine would have behaved in such a manner.

But is there any reason to make an evaluation of other human beings based on my own personhood? Intuitively to me, I know that I am constraint in making such an attribution of the nature of my conscious experience to other human beings around me. It seems obvious from my observation of fellow human beings around me who act in a way that would not naturally engender based on the nature of my personhood that they must be possessing a different sort of physical constitution that causes them to act in such a manner. They are behaviors which are natural to the respective individuals because of the way they are made or ‘wired’ to be. I can only speculate what it is like if I assume the identity of other people. How would I think or feel if I were someone else? Is this state of consciousness that I feel really representative of the nature of being human?

 

Well, it would be really interesting if I could assume the beinghood of other people and conduct a comparative study of the experience of consciousness of various individuals. Given the nature of my personhood, whereby I have a social deficit disorder known as Asperger’s Syndrome, I don’t think I would make such a good reference point from which to evaluate or speculate on the nature of the experience of consciousness of other individuals. But if I may guess, the ordinary person without Asperger’s Syndrome (or to use the psychology terminology, the “Neurotypicals”) is less introspective in nature. They are not stucked in a “in the mind” sort of feeling that I experience. They feel much more responsive to the external stimulus around them in the world. This helps them to connect to one another better.

 

Now, another trait that affects the consciousness which would make for interesting comparison is intelligence. Intelligence is an attribute that is melded into one’s consciousness. If I were not intelligent enough to be employed to the task at hand, things around me would seem confusing. I would not be able to comprehend what is being taught. I would find it difficult to work out the solution to a problem. And if I were intelligent, the subject matter to which my mind is applied to would seem apparent/obvious to my state of consciousness, such that one thinks that the subject is of such fundamentality in nature as how parallel lines are said to never meet, or that one plus one gives two. The person who is comprehending might not be able to give an explanation to why the comprehension for him is of such intuitiveness in nature. All he can identify with is this ‘sensation’ of comprehension, of knowing how to go about doing things.