Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Preface to the expanded paperback edition
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A bombshell in a letter box
- 2 Beyond the Flynn effect
- 3 Towards a new theory of intelligence
- 4 Testing the Dickens/Flynn model
- 5 Why did it take so long?
- 6 IQ gains can kill
- 7 What if the gains are over?
- 8 Knowing our ancestors
- 9 The art of writing cognitive history
- 10 About GUT: the grand unification theory of intelligence
- 11 Howard Gardner and the use of words
- Appendix I Tables
- Appendix II Declaration in a capital case
- References
- Subject index
- Name index
3 - Towards a new theory of intelligence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Preface to the expanded paperback edition
- Acknowledgments
- 1 A bombshell in a letter box
- 2 Beyond the Flynn effect
- 3 Towards a new theory of intelligence
- 4 Testing the Dickens/Flynn model
- 5 Why did it take so long?
- 6 IQ gains can kill
- 7 What if the gains are over?
- 8 Knowing our ancestors
- 9 The art of writing cognitive history
- 10 About GUT: the grand unification theory of intelligence
- 11 Howard Gardner and the use of words
- Appendix I Tables
- Appendix II Declaration in a capital case
- References
- Subject index
- Name index
Summary
We cannot avoid the problems raised by the concept of a universal good. Naturally, we are reluctant because it was invented by friends of ours, but for a philosopher … an even better friend must be the truth.
(Aristotle, Ethics, i, 6, 1096a, 11–16)Theory is not as exciting as trying to capture the thinking of our ancestors. General readers may find that this chapter takes some pondering. I believe it is worth the effort. Among other things, it gives my views on what will advance our knowledge of intelligence. There is a section on how a chimpanzee defeats humans on an important cognitive task. Have faith: later on we will be discussing things like how people can enhance their mental abilities (the advice is pretty common sense but worth taking), the fate of convicts on death row, and whether we can achieve the wisdom needed to cope with the problems of the twenty-first century.
I am going to stress the limitations of g but feel a certain reluctance to do so. Arthur Jensen has done brilliant work in exploiting its potential, and virtually everything I have done in psychology has been a response to problems and challenges posed by Jensen. His theory has a great beauty rather like that of Plato's theory of Forms. But I am now convinced that we must transcend a g-ocentric approach to make further progress.
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- Chapter
- Information
- What Is Intelligence?Beyond the Flynn Effect, pp. 48 - 82Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007