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Topic: Genius (Read 21978 times)

Genius

I suppose that genius is adequately defined as "an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work in science, art, music, etc."

I've knowing a couple of people who had extremely high IQs, but none of them really qualified as geniuses by the above standards. I knew a lady who had an IQ of 145 but she held a pedestrian position as a counselor in a school where I worked.

A few people jump to mind: Aristotle, Socrates, Newton, Einstein, Galileo and Leonardo Da Vinci. You'll think of others.

I ran across one recently, somebody whom I'd heard of earlier but didn't know much about, Alan Turing.

You'll get a nice appreciation of him in a couple of Youtube videos.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHFzNMgWzw[/video]
I'll have more to say on the subject presently.

Re: Genius

Reply #1
i know that,  i know nothing

~Aristotle

is that somekind of Geniusity ?








Re: Genius

Reply #8
What a helpful soul she is.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Genius

Reply #9
I'd agree, Jimbro, with your definition. Certainly, that IQ is a measure of something else -if not entirely- altogether different. Genius is -like pornography- something easily recognized but difficult to define. :)

What I'd ask, at this point, is how you felt — when even those who gave the link to the Wiki page failed to understand the author and his authority? :) But that only as a prelude to what you'd say about Turing… (I've read some of his published work: Indeed, he was a genius. If you're familiar with Gödel's work, you know that Turing offered the same sort of proof…of the same limitations of formal systems; but more general.)
Is there a point you wanted to make?

But before you bemoan Western society's prejudice against homosexuality: Consider Vlad the Impaler (whom you've mentioned, as if you knew him… :) ) Was he not a genius?
Of political organization and military strategy, certainly!

So. What was your point? :)
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Genius

Reply #10
Genius is -like pornography- something easily recognized but difficult to define.

Genius is a bless of the Holy Spirit, easy to define. Not related whatsoever with QI, a pseudo scientific fraud that only in the EUA people gives credit to it.
As for the resemblance Oakdale sees with pornography... well, I suppose that, hypothetically, there could even exist porno geniuses but I know no one.
A matter of attitude.


Re: Genius

Reply #12
In the late 1940s my father wrote a PhD thesis on The Genius of Joseph Conrad.
My father's contention was that genius had nothing to do with intelligence or even ability. It was not a mark on the scale by which intelligence is measured: "clever, extra clever, really clever, brilliant, Genius!"
Genius, he said, was an absolute. It was something within that squeezed out intellectual or artistic endeavour. Mozart was a genius. Mozart himself said, more than once, the the music bubbled out of him faster than he could write it down. Beethoven was not, in that sense, a genius. Beethoven was a towering Titan, a brooding talent who re-wrote everything, steadily honing it to perfection.
That itch, blessing, or flaw that is genius can come from heredity, illness, a traumatic experience, or a touch of madness. It can sometimes be purged.
This is all a bit of a commonplace now, but it was controversial stuff all those years ago.

Re: Genius

Reply #13
In the late 1940s my father wrote a PhD thesis on The Genius of Joseph Conrad.
My father's contention was that genius had nothing to do with intelligence or even ability. It was not a mark on the scale by which intelligence is measured: "clever, extra clever, really clever, brilliant, Genius!"
Genius, he said, was an absolute. It was something within that squeezed out intellectual or artistic endeavour. Mozart was a genius. Mozart himself said, more than once, the the music bubbled out of him faster than he could write it down. Beethoven was not, in that sense, a genius. Beethoven was a towering Titan, a brooding talent who re-wrote everything, steadily honing it to perfection.
That itch, blessing, or flaw that is genius can come from heredity, illness, a traumatic experience, or a touch of madness. It can sometimes be purged.
This is all a bit of a commonplace now, but it was controversial stuff all those years ago.

Nice post.
And no, it's not a common place now. Only a few can understand it.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Genius

Reply #14
Well some years ago I watched a man I actually knew on television on a current affairs programme. He was arguing with that way out MP, George Galloway. The man had a very high IQ but he got into a mess and was embarrassing. Just goes to show.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Genius

Reply #15
And no, it's not a common place now. Only a few can understand it.
Perhaps where you reside… In my portion of the Anglo-sphere, it is; and has been, for most of my life.
Indeed, tt92, your father was a shrewd observer!
Well some years ago I watched a man I actually knew on television […]
Of course!
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I specially liked this:
Mozart was a genius. Mozart himself said, more than once, the the music bubbled out of him faster than he could write it down. Beethoven was not, in that sense, a genius. Beethoven was a towering Titan, a brooding talent who re-wrote everything, steadily honing it to perfection.

Also worth noting was a critic's comment (from long ago…) that Bach, Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms were geniuses. Mozart was a miracle!
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Genius

Reply #16
Perhaps where you reside… In my portion of the Anglo-sphere, it is; and has been, for most of my life.

I refer to the divine nature of genius as a Grace. I would bet my money that at your Anglo culture most people keep on thinking that genius is merely the top of the scale of intelligence without attributing it a radical different nature.

In times of furious materialism it would surprise me very much it could be any other way. Genius most be reduced to some hi speed neuronal connection as if we were some sort of Internet router...

The reason I mention the Holy Spirit it's because it represents the way we can think God from a pure creation/creativity principle's perspective.
A matter of attitude.


Re: Genius

Reply #18
That was funny  :rolleyes:
A matter of attitude.


Re: Genius

Reply #20
Goofy people, mental midgets, nutjobs, eccentrics and the greatly sensible - have worked with them all and an enjoyable variety.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Genius

Reply #21
I would bet my money that at your Anglo culture most people keep on thinking that genius is merely the top of the scale of intelligence without attributing it a radical different nature.
Ah! :) But, you see, I'm not one of those silly egalitarian hypocrites here (I mean, in the U.S. …) who preaches equality of outcome and practices something akin to apartheid!
I somehow got a fairly good (conservative) education; of course, not everyone did. It's from that standpoint, encompassing my peers, that I made the comment… And I'd hazard the guess that the hoi polloi would most likely agree with you and me than with the zealous materialists! (Should the question ever gain their attention…) You'd probably be right, that the average Jane or Joe would think of genius as the acme of the scale (a scale…) — if asked; but the question would have to be posed like those of opinion polls: Designed to elicit only desired results!
(I defy anyone to compose a poll that doesn't do this!)

[I've got to stop now: My quota of exclamation marks is exhausted… More, later. :) ]
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Genius

Reply #22
There is "geniality" or "genialness" in English? I mean the quality itself that, when present, turns someone a genius?
I had dubious results when searching in English dictionaries, "genial" means something else.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Genius

Reply #23
There is "geniality" or "genialness" in English? I mean the quality itself that, when present, turns someone a genius?
Only genius itself comes to mind… A copy of Roget's Thesaurus -on its original plan- would serve well, for your purpose; but the newer ones are alphabetized, like dictionaries, which limits their usefulness.
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Genius

Reply #24
Goofy people, mental midgets, nutjobs, eccentrics and the greatly sensible - have worked with them all and an enjoyable variety.

You might enjoy this variety...I certainly do.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcR6j_JNwQs[/video]