07.+What+is+Intelligence+(February+2006) - Get a Free Blog

What is Intelligence? 46
Chapter Five – Intellect and Intuition
In the preceding chapter we asked the question why so many intellectuals
turn out to be not very understanding people, lacking in what we regard
as “commonsense.”
As Krishnamurti put it, no doubt based upon long experience of the many
scientists and academics whom he took part in discussions with:
There are Ph D’s who couldn’t put a flower on the table.
We are not here however particularly concerned with such practical
skills, but with the ability to solve problems in the human world, and for
that matter, in the material world in general.
But our focus here is going to be on the social and psychological
problems of mankind, because we think the rest can be solved easily
enough, once the former are.
However, what we are about to say is wholly relevant to the scientist who
would seek to be a creative scientist, perhaps originating new scientific
discoveries or even fields of study or technology, because as we are about
to explain, his or her ability to do this will depend upon a correct inner
perspective and an expanded understanding or the working of the human
psyche, such as we now intend to provide.
In science as in all other fields, there are the leaders and the followers.
Not that there is any shame in being a follower. We can’t all be Einsteins
discovering relativity, or Max Plancks creating a field such as quantum
physics.
The shame and crime however, is when a new leader emerges, and
perhaps overturns the knowledge or theories of the former leaders, but all
the followers who cannot see the correctness of his new findings stand in
his way.
Whilst we accept this process as inevitable in logical terms to some
degree – that is, if the leaders were the equal of the followers, they would
have come to the same conclusions already themselves – we feel that it is
necessary to explain the psychology of what is going on in academia and