Well-roundedness in and beyond smarts

What does one mean by "smarts" or "intelligence" anyway?

It's possible for somebody to be strong intellectually yet middling of imagination. It's common enough for somebody to be strong intellectually yet weak in the senses and cultivable "senses"/intuitions, and weak in commonsense perception -- shrewdness, foresight, percipience, and familiarity, the things which, when strong enough, used to be called "wisdom" until that word's suggestiveness of "agedness" made it laus non grata in our youth-cult culture. It fell into quaintness, used especially by newspaper editorialists and movies involving wizards. The common associations seem to go like this:

Imagination	--	Youth.
Intellect	--	Dwelling, staying put.
Senses & intuition/instinct	--	Travel, mobility.
Wisdom	--	Age.

This isn't to suggest that well-roundedness of cognitive power suffices without spiritual focus. Well-roundedness of cognitive power is not even possible without significant volitional, competential, and affective development. I'd hardly doubt that a healthy spiritual discipline is one of the missing pieces of the puzzle of unhinged intelligence (for my part I've never had a mystical experience and my attention is hopelessly voluble). - posted by The Tetrast, initially @ 2/23/2007 01:58:00 PM [top of post] [top of page] Copyright © BenjaminðA.ðUde11.