Re: Clear up
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ignoring ethics it seems highly unlikely that breeding for intelligence wouldn't result in cleverer people.
<font color="white">. </font>
Could be what happened with the ancient greeks and/or those jewish chaps. If you bring kids up in an intellectual [sic] environment then they are more likely to select for an intelligent mate.
[/ QUOTE ](I think you meant "intelligent environment" and not "intellectual".)
But that's not eugenics at all !
In fact, having an "intelligent environment" is a completely legitimate goal for society, although the concept is of course quite fuzzy.
As a side note, I doubt that an "intelligent environment" would necessarily make people more inclined to choose "intelligent mates". But, of course, that's not why we should strive for a more "intelligent" society. (By "intelligent", we could agree that we actually mean "civilised". It all becomes so much more clear, then. In a more "civilized" society, everybody is more "civilised", generally, so the intended "natural selection" is already happening.)
Mickey Brausch
[/ QUOTE ]
I do mean intellectual. If the parents encourage their children to use their intellects to work, study, reflect, speculate on, ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas, then that encourages a level of discourse that reflects intellectual ability. One of the main things people will do as they grow up is seek out people who can carry out discourse at a similar level as they will have the same interests. Groups of the more intelligent will form and they will tend to select partners from that group. If their children are likely to be of high intelligence and remain in a culture where intellectualism is encouraged then they will bring their children up in the same way and so on. Pockets of extreemly intelligent children will emerge.
The ancient greeks would be an example of a relatively closed group that hosted an intellectual environment. Sounds a bit like jews and some asian culures as well.
Just a thought.
chez
|