The Definition of Smart

i do not have a good definitoin of "smart".

a freind asked me what i thought smart was. i gave my freind an explanation of why a mutual consultant was not smart. these were my reasons:

quote:

---

she is, as of this point in her life, unable to think deeply into almost anything. the problem with this is that she chooses it. she chooses ignorance. she has told me many times that the only thing she has ever gotten from thinking things out is depression. she does not know how to learn from herself. and she is unwilling to let me, or anybosy else for that matter, which is why i now dislike john as a person that proclaims love for someone and is unwilling to make them a better person for fear of causeing them a ittle pain, teach her how to learn from her self. she does not know that she is shallow. she is unaware of her own persona, and does nt care. i made this abundantly obvious to her and she chose to ignore it. ANYONE WHO CAN PRETEND THAT THEY ARE NOT CLUELESS WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN PROVEN OTHERWISE IS AN IDIOT. ofcourse unless they are simply lying to themselves, as such i do not respect them. not because they are lying, but because they are dumb enough to beleive themselves, as such proclaiming their stupidity. she is not a quick thinker. she is innocent. she is oblivious. she is impressed with our poetry. mine in particular.

those are the reasons why i say that she is unintelligent.

that was harsh. i know. but with all that in mind, by the way i knew that the first time i talked to her, i can forgive every single bit of it with out any resentment.

an intelligent person is a quick and thorough thinker. they think things oput and act accordingly. they are openminded and willing to change.

---

i know that that is a bad definition. i would like you to analyze why that is a bad definition, and discuss your own definitions.

smartness or intelligence
there are many kinds of intelligence
it seems like she just has some difficulty making good decisions and needs to face the consequences of recklessness. As for intelligence you did not describe well enough. For me i have a low kinsthetic knowledge because it is harder for me to learn physical routines however when it comes to visual knowledge im much better. As for being shallow i can never be convicted of that. I dont see ppl like most ppl see them. For cluelessness sometimes i am absentminded and rush into things however i do not make fatal errors or errors causing harm to others.

When thinking about the word smart it always makes me ponder. Ponder what is smart? Who's smart? You're smart? Why? I'd say most often smart is tied in with intelligence. Intelligence is all about how you interpret data? Many things influence how this happens. Genetics, lifestyle, income, religion are just a few major areas. Each major area breaks down into minor areas and continues on exponentially. Each category works on a point system. For instance someone may have a lot of money but in the past his or her parents weren't that intelligent. So that would mean a high score for one category and a low in another. But the average of all the categories is what defines intelligence and how much of it you have.

Smart, to me, has always been a flat defintion. Being smart is just knowing a lot of facts. Being intelligent is something else entirely and it's debatable to define what that something else is.

Are smart and intelligent really entirely different? If someone was said to be smart would intelligence walk with it, most likely.

not necessarly. you can be very "uneducated" and still be really smart. it doesnt bother me that she is innocent in her experience towards general things, more that she is happy that she is ignorant and oblivious. i am asking if you think that someone that knows nothing but wants to know is smarter than someone who knows a little but doesnt want to know more.

Sounds like she's just more curious...which is usually associated with being intelligent/intellectual. To become smarter and gain more knowledge, you are better off having a desire for knowledge.

i find that intelligence involves knowing things like advanced math c or somethin, smart i find is good on the street and real life, having the gift of the gab maybe

id have said the opposite there, i tend to take smart as "booksmart" knowing facts etc, and intelligence as being able to interpret those things. though i would say there is some overlap. when smart you can interpret things, but you put more emphasis on knowing things, whereas intelligence centres more on ability to interpret the information, you may know just as many facts as a "smart" person, but you are quicker at interpreting what you see.

Awakend- It's one thing to be ignorant but it's certainitely another to know and enjoy your ignorance. No further point is necessary to understand how this could bother you. As for the second point that's their decision. Who are we to judge them. Take the omish for instance. They know a little(compared to modern society) and they choose to be ignorant to the information around them. Now take a baby and compare it to an omish person. One is not better than the other. Why because they are both people and the only thing separating them is lifestyles.

id agree with some of that, but at times purposefully ignoring things is wrong. its fine to remain ignorant of things if remaining that way causes no harm to those around you (as in both of your examples) but there are cases when choosing ignorance can either worsen or even create a problem.

quote:

---

but at times purposefully ignoring things is wrong. its fine to remain ignorant of things if remaining that way causes no harm to those around you (as in both of your examples)

---

you missed the point. what if you love the person? what if the person is hurting themselves? i could care less about how she hurt me. tahts a lie. i do care. but she is more important.

im not concerned with justification, i can do that on my own. i just want to know if the non-acceptance of pain for knowledge is considered an intelligent thing to do. because she is only acting so that she feels better about her self.

Behind every action comes reason whether they do it subconsciously or consciously. There is likely a subconscious reason, fear of being hurt or insecurities maybe even feeling needy of social acceptance. Regardless of what it is I think it's important for people to come to terms with things.

i apologise, i was confused by the fact that you said she was choosing ignorance to avoid the pain that deep thought caused her, and assumed that she was not hurting herself by doing so.

as far as i know, there is no definite answer as to whether choosing ignorance to avoid pain is intelligent. personally i feel it is a question of neccessity, if you ignoring something you need to know, then it is not the intelligent action, but if you are avoinding information that depresses you but about which you can do nothing.

i just wanted to bring this back up.
i think there is a lot that has not been discussed, honestly i was hoping that decius could shine some light on this for me.