Bush 2 was obviously as intelligent as anyone on this list. Calling him stupid was a cop-out and avoided actually trying to explain his policies. They had nothing to do with either stupidity _or_ lack of intelligence.
And of course there is the point Gould made, never refuted: Intelligence does not exist. Nor, of course, do instincts in humans.
Carrol
On 7/27/2011 6:40 PM, Mike Beggs wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 9:21 AM, Michael Pollak<mpollak at panix.com> wrote:
>
>> Some day I'll write an essay on how, in itself, and contra the
>> Enlightenment, being smarter doesn't make people any righter -- that
>> attached to wrong instincts, it just allows you to be more stubbornly wrong.
>
> I've always liked how Descartes put it at the start of the Discourse on Method:
>
> "Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed;
> for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that
> those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else,
> do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they
> already possess. And in this it is not likely that all are mistaken
> the conviction is rather to be held as testifying that the power of
> judging aright and of distinguishing truth from error, which is
> properly what is called good sense or reason, is by nature equal in
> all men; and that the diversity of our opinions, consequently, does
> not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than
> others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along
> different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects. For
> to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite
> is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the
> highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations;
> and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress,
> provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while
> they run, forsake it."
>
> Mike
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