From: Iain Strachan (iain.strachan.asa@ntlworld.com)
Date: Sat Aug 23 2003 - 07:51:48 EDT
Alex wrote:
> Genius is most certainly NOT a disadvantage ... etc
A further thought occurs as to whether the attribute of "genius" confers
advantage on the individual. The following poem from Philip Larkin (another
spectacularly gloomy, unhappy genius who lived his life in a paranoid fear
of death). It was written upon the birth of a daughter to his friend, the
novelist Kingsley Amis. Larkin would appear to disagree with Alex's
assertion. Much better to be dull and ordinary.
Born Yesterday
(for Sally Amis)
Tightly-folded bud,
I have wished you something
None of the others would:
Not the usual stuff
About being beautiful,
Or running off a spring
Of innocence and love -
They will all wish you that,
And should it prove possible,
Well, you're a lucky girl.
But if it shouldn't then
May you be ordinary;
Have, like other women
An average of talents:
Not ugly, not good-looking,
Nothing uncustomary
To pull you off your balance,
That, unworkable itself,
Stops all the rest from working.
In fact, may you be dull --
If that is what a skilled
Vigilant, flexible,
Unemphasised, enthralled
Catching of happiness is called.
(Jan 1954).
------------------------------------------------------------------
Iain .G.D. Strachan
There are 10 types of people in the world ...
those who understand binary and those who don't.
> can lead to instability in this population, having abnormally
> high cognitive ability (there is more to genius that just a
> "high IQ", but it is a minimum threshold), in and of itself, is
> an great advantage, especially in the technological society we
> now live.
>
> For a view of genius from an evolutionary perspective, see Dean
> Simonton's work:
>
> http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Simonton/homepage.html
>
>
> > Or, alternatively, it is often said that creative gifts are
> what God has
> > given you.
>
> It appears the combination of factors that are required to
> "produce a genius" are highly heritable, which is unsurprising
> because many/most major psychological characteristics have a
> high heritability (assuming a population that is normally
> distributed). I see this as having a Divine imprint on it, but
> others disagree.
>
>
> Alex
> -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
> A. Alexander Beaujean
> University of Missouri-Columbia
> http://www.missouri.edu/~aab2b3
>
>
>
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