People who call others 'intelligent'

This grates me. All the time I hear people saying 'he/she is/isn't intelligent'. 'I was at this conference and I met this guy and he is really intelligent' or something like this.

I just find it very egotistical. Who are you to be saying someone is or isn't intelligent? How do you define intelligence tangibly? You can't. There's so much generalisation of this word and unless you pertain to be a certain way, you are likely to not be deemed as intelligent or something.

I like to refer to people for what I can see in them - I see people as capable, enthusiastic, creative, driven, hard working but just to lamely see in a conversation that he or she is or isn't intelligent - what are you actually saying? What are you basing it on? Many people base this on conversation. I was watching a video on here just 5 minutes ago where someone posted 'he is clearly intelligent' and I don't understand what it was based on.

I just feel that and this may be a weird thing to say, but it has become a social or status norm to refer to specific people or render yourself as intelligent than others for some unknown reason. Sometimes in groups there is a mutual understanding that someone is not so intelligent, for no reason of substance other than maybe that person might have misunderstood or something or not known something.

I was talking to a friend recently who said he couldn't believe that someone got into an assessment centre ahead of him because he wasn't intelligent (words to that effect) and in my mind I thought - who are you? What do you know about how intelligent they are. Another time I was with a couple of guys I had just met and a friend and one of the guys said 'I know I look stupid but I'm not' and my friend laughed. Inside I thought .. who is this idiot? Why does he think he is smart? Because he is studying a Business undergraduate degree? I don't get it. Why is he so sure of himself.

Why do people do this as if they are supreme beings or something? It's such a snobbery way to talk about people in my opinion and it paints a bad picture of the person who always talks like this.

You are definitely blowing this out of proportion.

First thing to remember is that intelligence is a relative term, so when someone says someone is intelligent or not intelligent, they are saying they consider that person intelligent or not intelligent relative to some standard - typically either themselves, or what they consider to be average intelligence (within that context).

It seems your anger is directed at people that make comments about other people's intelligence as if it's an objective fact, but given intelligence is an entirely relative term, and a term that only has meaning within a context, by definition there is no such thing as objective intelligence or lack thereof.

So calling someone intelligent or stupid, relative to yourself or some percevied standard of intelligence, can be a valid statement. Ofc there is no way for us to complwtely know the intelligence of anyone other than ourselves, but intelligence is for the most part observable. For example, some students in a class may ask more complex and sophisticated questions than others, and so it is fair to say they are more intelligent, at least within that context.


Posted from TSR Mobile

lol

come at me brah - i'll fill your a r s e h o l e with my load

someone's on the VergeofInsanity I see lol

Calm down it's just a word. No-one needs to get hurt here >.>

When people say he/she is intelligent they generally are referring to their own subjective definition of intelligence, just as with most opinions people make. I don't see it as egotistical at all, just typical, slightly flawed, human judgement making.

but what is intelligence based on? you might say someone is creative or entrepreunerial because they come up with ideas or interesting methods. Maybe they are capable because they do well at whatever they do or perhaps demonstrate great drive or ambition. Perhaps they are academically brilliant, technically speaking. Maybe someone's knowledge is impressive - implying a good education.

But intelligence? I mean it is such an intangible word that encompasses such a wide and deep emphasis that to just lash it out it at people in judgement, is in my opinion arrogant.

You said it yourself. It encompasses a wide and deep emphasis, so wouldn't that mean it's fine to use in many respects?

I just get the feeling alot of people who use this word see themselves as successful but have achieved very little if anything themself.

But those sophisticated questions doesn't reflect solely on intelligence. That's exactly my point. It could be education, which is different to that of intelligence.

When I went to uni I went in without taking A Level Maths - and guess what? My course required A Level Maths knowledge. That meant I was playing catch up whilst most others were able to keep the pace. So by your definition I would be deemed unintelligent relative to that situation. That's an example of misinterpretation of intelligence.