On existential-phenomenological Intelligence

Abstract

The question of what intelligence is has always worried philosophers. In the 20th century, the IQ test was widespread, measuring the speed of intellectual operations, mainly logical and verbal. This indicator was criticized, and the very idea of intelligence was questioned. Standard IQ says nothing about the subject's success in life and his ability to understand world events beyond abstract operations. The concepts of emotional intelligence, social intelligence and others were introduced. American psychologist H. Gardner proposed 8 types of intelligence, such as musical, kinesthetic, personal. This article develops his idea and proposes existential-phenomenological intelligence. It is responsible for the subject's value thinking, for his/her attitude to the world, for building a developed worldview. The criterion of truth of this type of intelligence is authenticity. Phenomenological intelligence is responsible for dispassionate self-knowledge, the existential one for value assessment and goal setting. The theoretical discussions of existential intelligence are illustrated by an example: the attitude to humor. At the end, the question of integral intelligence, meta-intelligence, is formulated. Such intelligence may mean a wise human mind. It relates to particular types of intelligence similarly to how reason relates to reasoning in Kant, but in a modern developed theory these relationships must be formulated in a new way.