Into The Unknown Analysis

The dispute between the foundation of intelligence and the reliability of IQ tests has always been a controversy in this modern society. The disparity over the understanding of intelligence has also led to much conflicts and struggles on how to measure one’s ability to acquire knowledge and reasoning. In Kevin Warwick’s “Into the Unknown,” he argues that instead of measuring intelligence in a single dimensional value, difference aspects like culture and values should be taken into considerations throughout the process. In “The Social Imagination,” James Flynn expresses a similar viewpoint on the study of intelligence, claiming that psychologists tend to overlook and underestimate the social contexts that could possibly alter the results of
In Warwick’s “Into the Unknown,” he first examines the flaws of intelligence in regard to how IQ tests are being conducted and addresses the possible misunderstandings that could come up when one studies intelligence. He clarifies, “Any attempts to define intelligence that do not involve identifying specially valued cultural attainments must fail (Warwick 199).” Then, Flynn pinpoints the common obstacles while studying intelligence. He notes that once humans incorporate their own standards and values in the study of intelligence, it becomes impossible for IQ tests to remain objective and unbiased. To support his argument, Warwick creates an analogy between the speed of cheetah, car, spider, and human to illustrate how intelligence could be extremely selective and subjective (201). He makes a valid observation in which these categories are only comparable if they are referring to specific assignments; otherwise, it is entirely pointless. Moreover, Warwick identifies the problems on how researchers tend to take shortcuts and eliminate other factors that could alter the results of IQ tests. In “The Sociological Imagination,” Flynn continues to build on this foundation by listing the flaws of Jensen’s proposal on Reaction Times during the study of intelligence. First, he echoes Warwick’s claim by
In Warwick’s “Into the Unknown,” he introduces the hypersphere model and goes into details on how one’s intelligence can be portrayed in “a wide range of axes (210).” First, he refers back the argument that he previously mentions, which demonstrates his acknowledgement on how it is improbable to achieve an objective IQ test when nearly everything becomes subjective in human’s standard. Then, he redirects his audiences’ attention by showing his ambitions on overturning this dilemma and suggesting researchers to measure the performance on every facility and make further analysis on how they closely relate to each other. He continues to build upon his groundwork by listing other possible instruments of intelligence, including “a score for math, a score for music, a score for art, motorcycle maintenance” to showcase his understanding in realizing each individual has their own strengths and weakness on different facilities (210). In “The Sociological Imagination,” Flynn complements Warwick’s framework by promoting the Gardner’s theory on intelligence. He lists the seven categories of intelligence and raises awareness on how they can be integrate and assimilate to our living. Flynn postulates, “Perhaps we have overlooked the fact that a Mozart integrates a wide variety