Thesis: Truly intelligent people in the majority of cases tend to be kind. While there occasionally is to be found an intelligent, maniacally evil person, cruelty – stemming either from perceived difference or factual indifference - really is the (unwitting) domain of close-minded humans. One might have to admit that the greater damage per person will surely be done by the first mentioned, but in total the amount of suffering inflicted by lack of understanding or tolerance may well surpass the former. Truly intelligent people however see beyond such preconceptions and choose to base their actions on empathy and graciousness rather than hereditary hatred and fear.
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
I would say knowledge is more likely relevant than intelligence...one might be capable of great feats of the mind, but simply not have the life experience to make well informed moral choices.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
I don't think empathy or graciousness are necessarily the biproduct of intelligence.
Posted by Darth_Mauve (Member # 4709) on :
I've found many intelligent people to be very unkind. They are not evil, unless you call self-absorption evil. Its not that they don't plan to do harm to others, its that they just don't notice or recognize others. They probably consider themselves to be nice, in that they treat their mother, their family, their friends and people that they recognize as people, in a very nice and even self-sacrificing way. However, to the help they don't even notice the rudeness that they leave behind.
I've heard argued by conservatives, "We don't have a war against xxxx" where xxx is women, minorities, the poor, etc. And these very intelligent people do not go out of their way to harm any of those groups. They also don't go out of their way to help any of those groups, and if those groups are in the way of those very intelligent people, its the groups that have to move.
I've seen intelligent liberals do the same thing--promote the saving an animal at the cost of the living of a hundred humans. The celebration of a gay wedding does slap in the face some conservative Christian's faith. The non-violent gun enthusiast feels like a criminal as he fills in the required paperwork needed to pursue his hobby, and the intelligent liberal doesn't notice, and doesn't care.
I've seen children, uneducated and just learning, who give away their possessions and beloved toys because a friend is sad, or a stranger looks unhappy. I know many people with mental handicaps who are the sweetest, nicest people you can imagine.
Yes, there is a rational way to find kindness. However rationality is not a prime requirement.
To master the violin takes a very intelligent person. On the other hand there are many intelligent people who can not play a violin without sounding like cats fighting in aluminum duct-work.
And there are many violin prodigies who, besides playing on the fiddle, aren't very bright.
Posted by hawser (Member # 13415) on :
I agree with Darth_Mauve. There are intelligent people but do not initiate kindness. Sometimes,there are more ignorant people that possess a good character than the latter. I think, a behavior of an individual really depends on how a person is being brought up by his own family.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Basically all good characteristics are correlated. It does not appeal to the intuition, but intelligent people are more likely to be also beautiful, healthy, hardworking, and yes, kind. You lot are letting salience cloud your mind; you remember instances of intelligent people being unkind because firstly, they're unusual, and secondly, you mostly associate with intelligent people (I mean, as humans one standard deviation above average go) and so you don't get a lot of examples of unkind stupid people.
Posted by Emreecheek (Member # 12082) on :
quote:Originally posted by Darth_Mauve: The celebration of a gay wedding does slap in the face some conservative Christian's faith.
My intelligent partner and I are incredibly selfish in this manner - We got married without hardly any consideration for those poor conservative Christian's feelings about how we use tax credits.
I suppose the kind thing to do would to have been straight.
[Edited again to add]
Like, I don't want to harp on you too hard for that particular point in your larger point. But, seriously?
Posted by Threads (Member # 10863) on :
In my own experience, I haven't noticed a correlation between intelligence and kindness. I did some brief searching and I couldn't find any definitive research supporting a link between intelligence and kindness either. This isn't the type of question where personal anecdotes will lend much insight because it's very difficult to establish a given unkind act as being caused by stupidity. Plenty of people do stupid things for reasons other than a lack of intelligence.
Posted by Rakeesh (Member # 2001) on :
quote:Originally posted by Emreecheek:
quote:Originally posted by Darth_Mauve: The celebration of a gay wedding does slap in the face some conservative Christian's faith.
My intelligent partner and I are incredibly selfish in this manner - We got married without hardly any consideration for those poor conservative Christian's feelings about how we use tax credits.
I suppose the kind thing to do would to have been straight.
[Edited again to add]
Like, I don't want to harp on you too hard for that particular point in your larger point. But, seriously?
Also, there are not very many environmentalists who actually value a single animal's life over the 'living of hundred humans'. And I have the strangest notion that nothing more than 'this feels right' went into the brightness of violin prodigies.
Those were two very strange examples of 'liberal intelligent unkindness'.
Posted by Emreecheek (Member # 12082) on :
I guess I've been a victim of liberal intelligent unkindness myself, though, since I feel like a criminal when I fill out paperwork to own my car and maintain my license to drive it.