Here was his last word.
<,The 20th century has been the century of rising IQ, the spread of the language and categories of science, the liberation of reason from the concrete, and the enhancement of on-the-spot problem solving. The 21st century will be the battleground of armies for and against the SHAs. It just might culminate in the triumph of critical thinking if universities hold fast to what they are supposed to be all about. Whether we can hope for anything more, I cannot predict. It would be ironic if the industrial revolution, the factory that made IQ gains inevitable, has manufactured an appetite that wisdom cannot tame. But elderly men should be aware of their limitations. Perhaps those more attuned than I am to the present see the future more clearly.
But i disagree with his thesis education is only half the story. When we develop the mind it simply enhances those other qualities.
If those OTHER qualities were half the cause, why didn't they show up the last 200,000 years?
Because they need a catalyst and EDUCATION is that catalyst.
I also wish to underline that if we want to write the cognitive history of the 20th century, rising IQ is at most half the story. There are other intellectual qualities, namely, critical acumen and wisdom, that IQ tests were not designed to measure and do not measure and these are equally worthy of attention. Our obsession with IQ is one indication that rising wisdom has not characterized our time. |
