Intelligence over moral character

[Whitney Edwards]

I get it that intelligence is necessary for survival. But why does moral integrity and character always take a backseat when we evaluate a person's role in society. People often defend the wrong actions of a person if they exhibit high levels of intelligence. 

Intelligence itself supports integrity. What do we need to do to bring a fundamental shift in paradigm and choose moral character over intelligence? 

[Leo Gura]

Well, the problem is that people have a very wrong idea of what intelligence is, since people are not intelligent.

If you were truly intelligent you would value integrity and character very highly.

Being able to solve some narrow technical problem is not a good measure of intelligence.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Leo Gura

[Whitney Edwards]

Yes. That's robotic intelligence. 

Social and emotional intelligence means you are prone to value social integrity in humans. 

This will need a meta perspective. 

 

 

[hyruga]

Moral character is more important.

Let's say you are intelligent in a technical sense and you leave your job and you purposely leave a mess for your company because you make sure nobody can learn your stuff after you leave and you don't do proper handover. You make sure the company lose customers because of you and that everything is messed up. What happens next? 

People will dislike you and blacklist you. You also won't feel good towards your ex-company or ex-colleagues.

Edited April 19, 2023 by hyruga

[Treat]

I think a big part of it comes down to the thesis of this article: https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person

Which is that we don't care about people as a society, we care about what they can do.

It's easy to say you're funny, smart, and kind. But what really matters is how those qualities manifest themself in the real world. Do you create YouTube skits, program software, and volunteer at shelters? What makes you those things?

[M A J I]

https://www.sloww.co/tao-te-ching/