Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T10:50:53.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Philosopher's Reaction to Intelligence Tests

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2009

W. Mays
W. Mays
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

I DO not have to apologize for entering upon a discussion of intelligence and intelligence tests; it is a field which comes within the purview of philosophy as well as psychology. Any method of testing intelligence is therefore of common interest, especially as the methodology employed is usually based upon some definite theory as to its nature. The very word intelligence covers a wide range of meanings and psychologists seem to select sections of this range at will in accordance with their particular interest. It may include most of the behavioural activities of man, or be narrowed down so that it refers to certain quantitative or relational aspects of experience. To take the case of the factor analyst, after his concept of intelligence has been analysed and classified into g's and s's, it becomes not a description of the mind, but rather a closed cognitive model of it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 29 , Issue 110 , July 1954 , pp. 231 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1954

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bertalanffy, L. Von: “An Outline of General System Theory,” British J. Philos. Sci. 1. 1950.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cyril, Burt: “The Theory of Mental Testing,” The Year Book of Education 1950, pp. 42–73.Google Scholar
Chambers, E. G.: “Statistics in Psychology and the Limitations of the Test Method,” British J. Psych., Vol. XXXIII, 1943, pp. 189–99.Google Scholar
Hadamard, Jacques: The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field. Princeton University Press. 1945.Google Scholar
Hardie, Charles D.: Truth and Fallacy in Educational Theory. Cambridge University Press. 1942.Google Scholar
Harding, D. W.: “The Cultural Background of Intelligence Testing,” Scrutiny, Vol. 6. September 1937, pp. 144–54.Google Scholar
Hearnshaw, L. S.: “Exploring the Intellect,” British J. Psych., Vol. XLII, 1951. pp. 315–21.Google Scholar
Kendall, M. G. and Smith, B. Babington (with discussion): “Factor Analysis,” Royal Stat. Soc, Series B, Vol. XII, No. 1. 1950, pp. 60–94.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. M.: A Treatise on Probability. Macmillan. 1921.Google Scholar
Mays, W.: “Can Machines Think?” Philosophy, April 1952.Google Scholar
Piaget, Jean: The Psychology of Intelligence. Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1950.Google Scholar
Ritchie, A. D.: The Natural History of Mind. Longmans. 1936.Google Scholar
Smith, B. Othanel: Logical Aspects of Educational Measurement. Columbia University Press. 1938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Lawrence G.: “Mental Tests as Instruments of Science,” Psychological Monographs, Vol. 54, No. 3. 1942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar