Erudition and intelligence: is one possible without the other?

Author of the material:

Inna Trofimova

writer, psychologist, gestalt therapist

When asked for the word “erudition,” search engines return hundreds of tests to test one’s own erudition or a selection of books to increase IQ. Just what do they give? What will knowing the names of all the pharaohs give a person if his car breaks down? Or how can information about all the capitals of the world help you deal with your work tasks? Probably not. Does this mean that erudition has already gone out of fashion and you can rely on computers for everything? We discuss it in the article.

The meaning of the word "erudition"

• Erudition (from the Latin ēruditio - learning, enlightenment) - comprehensive education, broad knowledge in many fields. The word erudition comes from Latin: a scientist is considered an erudite (Latin eruditus), when studies and reading, accompanied by comprehension and conclusions, have erased all his roughness (Latin rudis, e-(ex-)+rudis), that is, “smoothed out” him initial ignorance. Erudition is the depth, brilliance and breadth that arises as a result of education and systematic reading and comprehension of literary and not only literary sources. A polymath has additional knowledge of a broader field of information, a deeper and more intimate relationship with the literature on the subject, and a broader intellectual horizon. Erudition refers to an educated person. However, this is not the same thing. An erudite person is necessarily educated, but an educated person is not necessarily an erudite. The critical difference is that an erudite person strives to overcome his rudeness and lack of education, while a simply educated person does not see any particular merit in this. A polymath delves into specific topics directly through books and research, rather than from courses teaching the subject. The famous Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi was a polymath: he read and studied the classics on his own, and was deeply influenced by many philosophers. Among the greatest ancient Roman scholars was Marcus Terence Varro. Among the greatest English scholars was the essayist Sir Thomas Browne. Erudition is evident in literary work when a polymath writer has general knowledge covering several different areas.

Source: Wikipedia

What is erudition?

Erudition is the ability of the human mind to assimilate and retain in memory a significant amount of knowledge and information from a wide variety of areas. On a personal level, this quality manifests itself as broad awareness, erudition , the ability to organize and systematize information received from various sources and, if necessary, explain it clearly.

The range of knowledge of an erudite person is distinguished by its breadth and depth - in addition to the highly specialized information he needs in his professional activities, he is keenly interested in new products from other industries not related to his work. Erudition is a product of continuous work on oneself , the fruit of constant self-development and self-education. For this reason, not every educated person is an erudite, because raising one’s own intellectual level requires not only a lot of work, but also a lot of desire.

“From the point of view of banal erudition...”

Taken out of context, the expression became quite popular and was intended to ridicule the excessive overload of scientific terminology in a number of texts. When exactly the phrase appeared, no one can answer for sure. All we can say with certainty is that this funny expression is decades old. The ending of this sentence is as follows: “From the point of view of banal erudition, not every individual is able to ignore the tendencies of paradoxical abstractions.”

Repeating this phrase at a fast pace can be an excellent exercise for those who would like to practice public speaking and improve their rhetorical skills. If you replace complex scientific terms in a sentence, you can clearly see the meaning of the entire expression, namely: “Some people can see meaning in non-existent and intangible things.”

Thus, the word “eruditeness” does not have any special meaning. What was important here was not the meaning, but the form. The first part of the expression can be a great place to start when answering any question.

Literary erudition

It seems to me that Radlov’s literary erudition, the rare semantics in an opera of two principles - words and music, the desire to take part in the restoration of a grandiose work, the consciousness of special responsibility for any deliberateness, as well as the especially attentive observation in this performance of the work of the director with The sides of Dranishnikov and Asafiev kept Radlov from his usual approach to opera classics: the performance is important, not the work. All the parts in Boris Godunov were perfectly developed. Of course, Reisen, Andreev and Bolotin - Boris, Zhuravlenko - Varlaam, Maksakova, Mshapskaya - Marina, Kabanov - Shuisky and others were too talented and musical artists for Radlov to risk dragging them into his favorite “Meyerhold” in Russian classics. The lack of interest of the mass audience in the trick as such in opera helped Radlov - an intelligent, practical and - with all the reservations - talented person to take the right path and completely move towards realism. He made a number of certainly interesting productions. In the early thirties, he created a wonderful realistic performance “William Tell” and, as a consultant, brought a lot of lively realistic colors to B.V. Asafiev’s ballet “The Flames of Paris”. His Shakespearean productions, created with modest means in the drama theater, are memorable: “Hamlet”, “Othello”, “King Lear”. After the revolution, Viktor Romanovich Rappaport worked in the reorganized troupe of the former Suvorinsky Theater as a director. In contrast to Radlov, he was not very self-confident. He was short, had long hair and a rather large beard. Carefully, apparently taking care of his well-groomed matte white face, he neglected the toilet. He always spoke quietly, but with conviction and persuasiveness, he always sincerely devoted himself to the fulfillment of each given creative task and was very willing to appear in print. Since the troupe was under the constant tutelage of the Union of Stage Workers, in particular its chairman I.M. Lapitsky, the latter began to take a closer look at Rappaport and, seeing in him a man of great culture, treated him with respect. This feeling was shared by Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, the commissar of theaters and spectacles in those days. It turned out that Rappaport not only professionally writes articles and small sketches, that he is not only a talented director, but also a very musical person. This gave M.F. Andreev and I.M. Lanitsky the idea to appoint him as director of Gosbot. Having opened the theater in 1920 with a successful production of The Tsar's Bride, Rappaport also earned success with the production of The Maccabees, although these were his first steps in opera. These performances served as a springboard for Rappaport to move to academic theaters, where for several years he remained the main director of opera, and at the same time one of the most active directors of dramas, comedies, operas and operettas not only in academic but also in other theaters.

Joseph Brodsky as an example of fantastic erudition

The Nobel laureate in literature is, of course, suitable for illustration in this case.

Joseph Alexandrovich did not receive any higher education; he left school in the 9th grade. From then on, he was exclusively engaged in self-education. But if you take the trouble and read the book “Dialogues with Joseph Brodsky” by Solomon Volkov, you can be convinced that Brodsky’s erudition is boundless and deep. True, it mainly concerns literature, the Russian language, philosophy - the humanities. He is not an encyclopedist, as one might think. And there is so much knowledge now that in one particular area you can drown in the information sea. In other words, the question of what erudition is can be answered metaphorically: “This is Joseph Brodsky.” But everyone has their own heroes and examples. Now let's look at the problem from a practical point of view.

The essence of the concept

Intelligence and its components were first described by the German scientist Wilhelm Stern at the beginning of the 20th century. Then many scales and methods for diagnosing mental abilities appeared, including the famous IQ test.

Intelligence is defined as a stable set of human mental abilities that allow him to adapt to the environment, cognize and change it.

This concept cannot be equated with cognitive, mental abilities. They are only a working tool of the intellect.

The most comprehensive model for this term was proposed by the American psychologist Joy Paul Guilford. In his opinion, intelligence includes 120 factors.

All of them can be classified according to three indicators:

1. content (human mental work);
2. operations (method of information processing);
3. result.

The development of intelligence is possible if you work on all these points. However, in ordinary life, a person may have many ideas that he analyzes in every possible way, but cannot put into practice. He just doesn't have the skill to do it. It is very important to know how to increase your intellectual level in all areas. But more on that later.

What is intelligence and how to measure it

Intelligence refers to the individual characteristics of a person that relate to the cognitive sphere: thinking, memory, perception, attention and others.
Thanks to these abilities, we effectively use the acquired knowledge. Intelligence is a relatively stable structure of an individual’s mental abilities. There are other interpretations of “intelligence”:

• Swiss psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget proposes a structural-genetic approach and defines intelligence as the highest way of “balancing the subject with the environment, characterized by universality”;
• the cognitivist approach views intelligence as a set of cognitive operations;
• The factor-analytic approach considers stable factors of intelligence, which include the ability of the nervous system to process information with a certain speed and accuracy, as noted by the German-British psychologist Hans Jurgen Eysenck.

Eysenck noted that this property of the nervous system is genetic. Psychogenetic studies have shown that the proportion of genetic factors of intelligence varies from 0.5 to 0.8. Moreover, verbal intelligence is most genetically dependent.

The criteria by which the level of intelligence is assessed include depth, generalization of knowledge, mastery of methods of coding, integration and generalization of sensory experience, development of internal speech, silent speech, hidden verbalization that arises in the process of thinking. abstract and critical thinking. All these operations make it possible to create a unified system of views that determine the moral position of the individual, his abilities and character.

Exercise for the mind

Let's take a closer look at how to develop intelligence with the help of special actions. Before moving on to specific examples, it should be noted that the development of intelligence is impossible without the ability to fully rest.

The human brain must be active and process a large amount of information. This is impossible without good sleep. Normally, 8 hours is enough for a person, but it all depends on individual characteristics. The main thing is that the individual feels rested and full of vital energy to improve his intellect and develop creativity.

In addition, active rest is important. Hiking, running, cycling, and swimming are ideal for this. At the same time, the head has the opportunity to temporarily disconnect from solving global problems.

Now let’s move on directly to exercises and ways to develop intelligence:

• Board games

This is the most famous and ancient way to improve human mental abilities. Playing chess, checkers and backgammon allows you to develop intuition, engages intelligence and creativity. Thinking, memory, will, and emotions actively work here. The player logically plans his moves and tries to predict the enemy's response.

In addition to well-known games, psychological board activities also improve intelligence well. These include the games “Mafia”, “Evolution”, “Dixit” and others. In such games, not only knowledge is important, but more so communicative competence in order to convey your point of view to others and feel the players.

• Puzzles

The name itself suggests that the brain will have to work. Puzzles include Rubik's cube, jigsaw puzzles, crossword and scanword puzzles, mathematical and other riddles.

Thanks to this, it is possible to competently organize intellectual leisure for both adults and children. After all, it is very important to introduce a child to mental operations from childhood. When solving puzzles, fine motor skills are also involved, due to which the relationship between visual analysis, thought and action develops.

• Fine art

Here the relationship between intelligence and visual creativity is most clearly visible. While a person is engaged in creativity, the brain is actively working and can find solutions to very important problems. This is also called illumination or insight.

The fact is that when drawing and sculpting, an individual falls into a light trance state and detaches himself from everyday life. This helps to tap into the unconscious impulses that are responsible for brilliant ideas.

The ability to draw and sculpt in this sense does not matter at all. The main thing is to surrender to the creative process. You can simply draw spots and lines, color the picture to a pleasant melody.

• Foreign languages

How to develop intelligence through learning foreign languages ​​is clear to everyone. The more knowledge, the wider the field for its application. What is important here is not quantity, but quality.

A person must have an interest in the language being studied and the culture of the country itself, find consonances of words, write poems and songs in this language. This is what engages the “intelligence and creativity” connection.

• Reading

Books for the development of intelligence are an indispensable assistant. Through reading, a person not only learns new things, but also immerses himself in unusual worlds, becomes acquainted with the secrets of science, and comprehends new cultures. How to develop intelligence in the process of reading, because this is a common human activity?

The correct selection of books is important here. As already described above, you need to read thoughtfully and with pleasure. If the book is not interesting, you should not force yourself. Such reading will not bring joy, which means it will go in vain.

• Break pattern

A person whose life is subject to a clear routine often acts by inertia. Working and existing automatically does not allow an individual to even think about how to increase intelligence, and whether it should be done at all. Unfortunately, this is how most people live.

It is important to find the strength within yourself to break this vicious circle. You usually need to start small. For example, change the route to work. In the evening, take a walk in the park for an hour. On weekends, do something you haven't done before. Instead of household chores, go to an orphanage or to a neighboring town. Breaking the pattern allows you to look at the world differently and actualizes mental activity.

This article gives only some ways to increase intelligence. In this process, the most important thing is to understand how life will change when the intellectual level becomes higher. What will happen then to your inner world, your family, how will your wealth and relationships with others change? If the picture is positive, then this is the right path of development.

What advantages does erudition give a person?

Naturally, erudition is one of the positive personal qualities. Among its main advantages, the following advantages should be noted:

• It is not difficult for an erudite to maintain almost any conversation, while surprising the interlocutor with his knowledge, thanks to which he feels comfortable in different companies;
• Intellectuals have a greater chance of getting a good job, and they also move up the career ladder faster;
• The ability to assimilate new knowledge and skills gives such people the opportunity to quickly acquire a new profession;
• The opinion of an erudite person sounds weighty and authoritative to others, which allows him to successfully occupy leadership positions;
• An intellectually developed person can easily operate with a significant amount of information;
• Such people are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia;
• An erudite person attracts increased attention, which helps to gain success with the opposite sex;
• Erudites easily make acquaintances and make new business connections without problems;
• They are listened to when solving work issues, since their opinion is considered competent;
• An erudite person is characterized by self-confidence, which allows him to achieve success in various endeavors;
• Children of intellectuals develop faster than their peers, as their parents gradually pass on their own knowledge to them.

The connection between intelligence and mental processes

The human psyche is a complex structure, therefore all processes in it are interconnected and interdependent.

In particular, intelligence is largely influenced by the following internal realities:

• Thinking

Some scientists even considered these concepts to be synonymous. But this is fundamentally wrong. Thinking is the process of cognition and processing of information, and intelligence is the ability to competently apply knowledge at the right time. Without mental operations, a person's intellectual level would be very low.

• Will

Volitional efforts are needed precisely in order to master new material, study important books, and bring thoughts to the final result.

• Memory

The ability to retain, store and reproduce information is an integral part of intelligence.

• Attention

Intelligent people are distinguished by an attentive attitude to the world around them. They are able to notice the smallest details, analyze and study them. The development of intelligence is closely related to the improvement of human attention.

• Creativity

Guilford wrote about this sweet couple: intelligence and creativity. This term refers to a person’s ability to think creatively, that is, outside the box, to synthesize original ideas.

What's wrong with erudition without intelligence?

If the components of the mind are unevenly developed, this can negatively affect both the person himself and the people around him. The first thing to note here is the overestimation of abilities. When a person, with the help of his erudition, gives the impression of himself as a kind of sage, he exposes himself to the risk of not being able to complete the tasks assigned to him if they require from him a developed intellect and the ability to synthesize information, and not simply repeat what is known .

If everything is in order, the situation is standard and does not require the use of any new tools, a person with developed erudition and undeveloped intellect will easily master the work in front of him. But if it is necessary to use a non-standard approach or tools unknown to such a person, serious difficulties arise.

On the other hand, erudition without intelligence quite often leads to a lack of critical approach. When a person absorbs information, neglecting its deep analysis, he shows excessive trust in its source and easily succumbs to the influence of experts and authority figures.

Of course, something similar is characteristic of each of us (for example, no scientist can understand absolutely all sciences, and when faced with something beyond his competence, he will trust other authoritative scientists), but still a complete lack of critical thinking can create blind faith. And the latter, as practice shows, is often far from the true state of affairs.

Erudition and intelligence

The development of intelligence is closely related to such a concept as erudition. Let's figure out what it is?

Erudition is a set of deep knowledge in any field of science or life.

Erudites have an inquisitive mind, always looking for new information on a topic that interests them. An intelligent person does not stop at one area; he develops in all possible directions. The line between these concepts is quite blurry. An erudite may also be interested in several areas at once, but, for example, be a layman in communication.

It is important to understand the following: in order to increase your intellectual level, you need to strive to become an erudite person in any field.

How to increase erudition for an ordinary person? The best way is to read topical books. Moreover, the quality of reading is extremely important. It must be thoughtful and meaningful. A person should write down or mark favorite or controversial phrases and questions, and look for an answer to them.

After reading the book, you can discuss it on a special forum so that the knowledge works and does not lie in your memory as a dead weight. In special psychological and pedagogical literature you can also find out the opinions of scientists on how to develop intelligence.

Signs of an erudite person

Typically, erudite people do not consider their own intelligence to be their main advantage, do not strive for self-affirmation at the expense of others, or even try not to show off their intellectual abilities. An erudite understands that one cannot know absolutely everything, and therefore is interested in everything new. In addition, erudite individuals are characterized by other qualities, for example:

1. Analytical mind. When analyzing various information, the erudite invariably uses logic, and he relies on it when choosing the most optimal way out of any life situation.
2. Tendency to creative thinking. This ability helps erudite people successfully resolve a variety of issues and problems. A creative approach to current affairs allows them to bypass outdated stereotypical solutions to problems and come up with new, more effective ones.
3. Quick adaptation to new conditions. This quality is very useful when changing place of work, residence, etc. because it allows a person to quickly integrate into a new environment and team, and then quickly navigate within it.
4. Good organization. Erudite people love self-discipline; they strictly follow the daily plan developed the day before, which allows them to correctly distribute their own time and complete assigned tasks on time.
5. The desire for self-development. Self-development is one of the main life incentives of an erudite; replenishing his own knowledge and skills is always his priority.
6. Ability to make quick decisions. Relying on logic allows intellectuals to find the right solutions even in difficult and confusing situations.
7. Excellent communication skills. This quality allows erudites to successfully interact with the people around them and convey their ideas and ideas to them in an accessible manner.