Knowledge
Intelligence
Both are equal
Steven666
Knowledge is more important. If you know everything about everything you shouldn't need to be very smart to be able to use or pass on this knowledge.
Intelligence on its own ain't worth a lot.
The question though is a bit like 'which is more important, software or hardware?' It doesn't matter how powerful a computer you have if there is no software to tell it what to do.
Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story
Now students, let's look at this problem from a practical point of view. How does it affect you, the individual.
Let's look at intelligence first. Let's call intelligence the ability to process data and come to a conclusion or produce a result. Can we do anything to increase our intelligence? There are many people who say you can. Some people will take your money and promise they can help - even they only claim to increase your intelligence by a small amount, say 20%. And we're not sure that what is being measured is the ability to process data: often it's the ability to do intelligence tests!
Now let's look at knowledge. It's what the intelligent brain uses in to process new data - even that data is more knowledge. Can we do anything to increase our knowledge? YES! We can increase our knowledge through study, through living, through conversation. Every day we add to our bank of knowledge. If we do nothing new we add little. If we try new things, live a full life, etc we will increase our knowledge by a thousand times: possibly a thousand, thousand!
So, what is most important. It has to be knowledge, because we can do something about it and we can start today. Of course intelligence is important. And a better intelligence could produce a quicker, more accurate or more insightful result. But that better intelligence is not attainable for the individual.
Both knowledge and intelligence need each other. However knowledge can be accumulated by society, while intelligence is a personal quality.
Human intelligence has not changed for millenia. Human knowledge has grown enormously since then. Every trapping of life you take for granted is a consequence of that accumulated knowledge. The difference in the quality of life you have, compared to someone in the Bronze age, is a consequence of better knowledge, not of better intelligence. A person of average IQ can accomplish more than Plato or Aristotle, purely as a result of the knowledge available to modern society.
Another way to look at it - babies are highly intelligent. They know virtually nothing. Even the most intellient baby can accomplish less than a moderately intelligent adult.
Intelligence without knowledge is powerless. Knowledge without intelligence is a blunt weapon, but is still a weapon
Sorry i disagree, intelligence and knowledge are not independent of each other. If a person is not provided with stimulation and knowledge their potential intelligence is never fulfilled. Secondly, there is a body of evidence suggesting that western intelligence is increasing. Since the 50's, scores on IQ tests have gradually increased. Not saying i agree with the conclusion that intelligence is increasing, but you certainly cannot say that intelligence has not changed for millenia.
Also intelligence is related to age and you cannot compare people of different age groups.
Knowledge, by a long way. Intelligence with the use of knowledge can create and grow - intelligence on its own is limited by its environment.
So is "genius" a good thing then ? For an individual ? for society ?For me, genius, consists of 99% intelligence and 1% knowledge.
Is this the thought process that has meant that I've never read a single book
No, thats probably arrogance
"Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit
Intelligence is knowing enough not to put it into a fruit salad"
I have a vast Knowledge of lots of useless things.. doesn't make me intelligent however. Knowledge is knowing 'facts', Intelligence is being able to process those facts into something more practical and think around the 'facts' .. play with them a little, question where they fit in and fit together and be prepared to throw them away if you come up with a better set of facts.
When I was young I KNEW there was a Santa . As I got older I began to think about the problems he had to overcome to deliver the presents to all the people of the world in one night, getting into building without chimneys etc etc . In order to answer these questions one fatefull christmas eve I set up a trap to alert me when Santa arrived so I could ask him these questions. I got my answer.. just not the one I was expecting. essentially I'd known something (Knowledge of a fact) .. I had the intelligence to question it..and though experimentation came up with a better fact.. that Santa didn't exist and it was just my Dad after all.
You need a balance of both IMHO.. You need the facts to base your investigations on.. you need the know how to reshape your accepted library of facts.
it wasn't THAT long ago when we all KNEW the earth was the center of the universe.
Sorry i disagree, intelligence and knowledge are not
My understanding is.....
'intelligence' has increased because of 'knowledge'
If you were to take a Ape man from 50,000 BC and raise him from infant today he would be able to talk/take exams etc etc
Mans inherent intelligence hasnt changed much in that time
You couldnt train a dog to walk /take exams from 50,000 years ago or from now
IQ results go up as we know more
Errr i totally disagree.
You can be extreme forms of knowledge and some people suck up knowledge like a sponge, these people do tend to have a restricted intelligence in common sense. They can end up totally dumbfounded by the simplest things. Let me explain why, you have a degree in Tanks. (yes i know this does not exist but its an example) this person will know all there is to know about tanks and probably be able to drive it but give him a bus and he is buggered because his intelligence is missing.
Give a tank to a person with intelligence, they will probably be able to make sense of them both of them and drive away quite happily.
Brain sizes have increased since then, although are stable now, which is believed to be due to improved diet. Other increases are due to as you say improved knowledge, education and nutrition. Although a while back it was argued that the general trend in IQ increases has stopped and that this is due to changes in social/family trends. its been suggested that intelligent people are currently haveing 0-2 children and less intelligent people are having larger families, resulting in an overall reduction in IQ. Not saying i agree with it, before someone jumps down my throat but its a theory iv read.
The trend is also for the more intelligent to have their families later, and this is a geometric progression and probably more significant.
Government policy of having degree students paying for their education may be disasterous for the future of Britain. It takes longer for them to be able to afford a family.
The average student gets married older and has children at a later age than someone who doesnt go to uni. Remember learning that at uni but cant remember why!
You can have a lot of knowledge with limited intelligence.
You are unlikely to have high intelligence without much knowledge though. Intelligent people seek knowledge. Being dismissive of knowledge is not a sign of great intelligence.
The two in combination gives the ability to apply the knowledge in an intelligent way.
Of course we never have complete knowledge. Genius is being able to 'jump the gaps' in the existing knowledge.
Yes but the intelligent person would be able to work it out based on the existing knowledge they already have about vehicles in general - thinking though things such as there must be something to start the tank and a braking mechanism, are there gears, how steering something with treads might differ from steering something with wheels etc.
Its that ability to apply knowledge from elsewhere to a new situation that is a sign of intelligence.
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