buryuntime wrote:
Horus wrote:
buryuntime wrote:
"Every parent would like their child to be blessed with many fine attributes, attractiveness being one of the most sought after."
Seriously? It's not as if they care about intelligence, because if these people were actually intelligent they wouldn't be participating.
Surely you can't be serious here.
Please don't tell me that you truly believe a person's participation/non-participation
in something like this qualifies as a test of intelligence.
It's a bit of an indication when someone is this obsessed with something so superficial, votes people out based on looks, and does this all on the /internet/ where photos can be angled or edited to appear better. I think an intelligent person would see intelligence as a higher attribute than looks, which is much more subjective than intelligence. I also think an intelligent person would spend their time on better pursuits.
No it's not a "bit of an indication" at all. Rather....it is your subjective conception of what intelligence is and is not. Being obsessed with something "superficial" does not mean someone is less intelligent. This just may be the only "superficial" thing these people are
obsessed with for one thing.
I would submit that you're judging people by using some very "superficial" criteria.
I know plenty of people who are probably as obsessed with physical appearance as these people are. My ex-GF is one of those people and therefore by your standards, she would be judged as pretty unintelligent.
But that would be sort of a funny conclusion on your part considering she was taking AP calculus in high school. Now some of these people obsessed with physical beauty may have never gotten past basic algebra and other less intellectually-challenging subjects. But just because they didn't doesn't necessarily mean they don't have the innate mental capacity to do so. Many people who few would define as unintelligent simply aren't interested in academic subjects. Many of these people have demonstrated their intelligence in ways that have nothing to do with academics.
The term "superficial" is subjective in first place at least when we're applying it to human personality, priorities and behavior. I'm sure there's many people who believe an obsession with intelligence is pretty superficial too.
Intelligence is pretty subjective as well. Even psychologists debate over how intelligence should be defined. If we're solely defining it by IQ scores, then yes, it is at least somewhat objective. But just to mention one thing, considering the IQ scores (on CERTAIN IQ tests which many on the spectrum are bound to perform poorly on) of 75% of autistic people placed them in mentally ret*d range up until a short time ago, IQ tests are a pretty poor indicator of intelligence too. Many people with autism score very high on non-verbal IQ tests like Ravens Progressive Matrices. Indeed, many out-perform most NT's on this test.
Take someone like Sujeet Desai, a young man with Down syndrome. I'm pretty sure his IQ scores would be significantly below average on ANY IQ test. And yet he has mastered seven musical instruments including violin, piano, drums and alto sax. He also has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Who is to say that he is untelligent? Don't these skills require the use of one's mind? Don't they require a good deal of mental effort? Are they just magically bestowed upon people by fairies? There's alot of NT's who score average or better on IQ tests who may never be able to master seven musical instruments or get a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
In one sense....I agree with you. Physical appearance is really of no genuine value when we view it from a strictly rational perspective. But therein lies the crux of the matter. Human Beings aren't strictly rational creatures!! ! Whether it's due to nature or nuture or some configuration of both, many humans place alot of value on physical appearance. And since most of us have little other choice than to live in a societies filled with millions of human beings, physical appearance IS of some value whether you and I think it should be or not.
I would be the first to agree with you that intelligence (in all of it's myriad forms and manifestations) is INFINITELY more important than physical beauty. But I also realize that is nothing more than my opinion and it does not qualify as absolute/objective truth.
31 Jul 2010, 1:57 pm
