Is someone sharp in Maths more intelligent than one who isn't? Is abstract logic higher order of intelligence?

Question

Is someone sharp in Maths more intelligent than one who isn't? Is abstract logic higher order of intelligence?

Answer 1

Math certainly takes one kind of intelligence however people who have very good emotional intelligence tend to be what most people would judge as successful.  Emotionally intelligent people tend to have strong personal and business relationships.  If you are very adept socially you do not need to be good at math because you can easily get those who are good at it to do it for you.

Answer 2

Well, depending how you define intelligence, maybe. People can be intelligent about different things using different skill sets. Intelligence means, to me at least, having capacity for a few skills: having clear perception and being aware of how one's assumptions or uncertainty bear on the problem one sees; being very associative, so that any one problem or situation can be related and compared to a number of others at high speed and in subtle detail; having the accurate processing ability and good working memory to produce a witty, useful, logical, ethical, thorough, tactful, etc. solution - whatever is most called for.

I agree that certain types of math call for a very high level of a specific type of abstraction (I certainly struggled in engineering physics 101). I think that abstraction is just one type of high level processing skill - abstracting things in layers (like in critical theory), or abstracting many of them at a time within a scheme (like in mathematical modeling). And abstraction is probably the skill that is developed last in many individuals' development. So higher math ability is probably a decent index of overall intelligence, but not an absolute measure.

Answer 3

The ability to logically handle complex relationships is very much a sign of intelligence.

Do NOT believe the BS that we are somehow equal in intellect.

But don't imagine something like Math is the whole picture either.   As per Darwin we are here to breed.  So don't ignore the girl while preening over mastering the quadratic.  

That would be dumb.

Answer 4

no because intelligence can never be defined.

Answer 5

I have a math degree and I've found that the people that can hack really abstract math with ease are some really intelligent people. The upper end of pure math, for instance, is extremely complex stuff and there were times I spent hours trying to figure out something that some of my friends would just intuit.

Now, I also have two English degrees and I've definitely found some work in analyzing literature, especially the more abstract theory stuff, is equally difficult.

I certainly agree that aptitude in maths is a good indicator of "intelligence," but there are a lot of other things that are also good indicators. I do believe that "intelligent" people should be able to understand math, but I think the symbols scares people and if they took the time to try to figure it out, a lot of the problems would turn out to be similar at their kernels.

Answer 6

Everyone has an equal number of faults and weaknesses.

Faults may be a fault in one area, but a strength in another.

For instance, being emotional.

An emotional man will be a fault as far as war is concerned. But when raising children, his weakness will become a strength.

It's a continuum.

Someone who good at math is simply good at math. He or She will have a weakness in another area.