Consciousness and Intelligence
By Juliana Costa
The other day I heard from a mental health professional that we shouldn’t encourage our children and students by congratulating them on their intelligence. That made me confused. How can we not encourage a person to increasingly develop their intelligence, especially in a moment when they are at their greatest productivity?
When reflecting upon this, I found myself faced with another great question: is it possible that when mentioning intelligence the professional meant to refer to intellect? I think in this case his statement would make much more sense.
This would not be the first time that intelligence has been confused with intellect. This still occurs very frequently, as in the case of the IQ Test, whose acronym refers to the “Intelligence Quotient”, when in fact its purpose is to measure intellect.
It is not that intelligence and intellect are not related. Both are essential for human development and in a certain way we can even consider them interdependent, but one thing is one thing and another thing is another thing.
Intellect is raw, it refers to the ability to measure, calculate, analyze, and look at each part of the whole. It reaches the tangible, the known, therefore, it imitates, copies, and interprets, but that’s it. The more intellect the Human Being has, the more full of knowledge, information, and, often, ego they are. After all, there is a tendency for the intellectual to believe in the illusion that there is only the tangible, and nothing else, even if they technically believe in science. Thus ignoring the fact that science is not and should not be taken as conclusive, definitive, or even demonstrative, as it is always subject to discoveries. It is interesting to point out that these discoveries might not even ever be reached.
Intelligence, on the other hand, is creative, used to solve problems, understands what is intangible, and reaches the truth. It is intelligence, for example, that tends towards infinity, because, when making use of it, the Human Being is in direct contact with the unknown, through a source that never ends. It is, even in its smallest particle, a source of wisdom, of novelty, it is a path for the Human Being to encounter himself. For this reason, too, the vision of the whole, beyond the vision of the parts, is part of intelligence.
Intelligence is very much related to the possibilities of learning, that is, of acquiring intellect. According to Howard Gardner, for example, American psychologist and educator, creator of the “Theory of Multiple Intelligences”, the Human Being, regardless of age, can learn certain knowledge in nine different ways, namely logical-mathematical, linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily, spatial, musical, naturalistic and existential. This theory argues that, in the formal education process, emphasis is placed on presenting knowledge to students in each of these ways, thus making teaching as democratic as learning.
Do you see in this the relationship between intellect and intelligence? They are like different sides of the same coin, so, just as it makes no sense to feed the intellect without knowing how to make good use of it, as a result of the development of intelligence, there is no point in trying to develop intelligence without having the repertoire to do so – things of the intellect.
And where does Consciousness fit into this story? Well, neither one thing nor another, and both at the same time.
The relationship between intellect and Consciousness is the result of the possibility of developing reason, which, despite being opposed to Consciousness, allows those who use it to walk increasingly straighter.
Intelligence, on the other hand, relates to Consciousness through its link with Truth. After all, it is up to intelligence to seek and find the truth as it is, without reservations, and it is up to Consciousness to practice it.
In this context, the more reason one has, as a result of intellect, and the better perception of truth one develops, as a result of intelligence, the greater the capacity of the Human Being to awaken, develop, and build their Consciousness.
Knowing all this, I go back to our first question: should we not praise our children and students for their intelligence?
Conscientiologist, Educator with experience at all levels of Basic Education in Brazil, and Specialist in Teaching and Self-knowledge, Consciousness and Education, Neuropsychology, and Psychopedagogy. Master’s student in Clinical and Counseling Psychology with a focus on Job Satisfaction, Decent Work, Big Five Personality Factors (Big Five), and Mental Health. Teacher of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in face-to-face and distance learning modes. Coordinator of the Support, Accessibility, and Inclusion Center at a Brazilian College. Speaker with international experience in Denmark, Australia, the United States, Mexico, Portugal, and Brazil. Writer of several articles and book chapters, as well as the series “Approaches to Consciousness in its Pragmatism”. Consultant in Education Sciences in several public and private companies.
