Question

For the initial post, address the following:

Do you agree that wisdom/critical thinking is a better predictor of well-being than intelligence? To answer, you will have to define what the following terms mean for you:

Critical thinking

Wisdom

Intelligence

Well-being

Reflect on what you read in the text this week. Think of the people you know.

Are the good people smart?

Are the smart people good?

How do you define "good"? How do you define "smart"?

Can we use our intelligence to become "good"? If yes, how? If no, why not?

Answer 1

1- Well being can be termed as the state of contentment, happiness, balanced life, zeal, peace and eventually love for life.

Critical thinking is the analytical endeavour in order to reach to a judgemental capacity.

Intellect is an entity that enables the comprehension of the abstract facets of existence/ life.

Wisdom- Possessing and utilising knowledge to distinguish between sense and non sense, good and bad, right and wrong.

Considering these above mentioned root meanings of the terms and appying it to well being, it is evident that wisdom/critical thinking is a better predictor of well-being than intelligence.

2- Goodness can be defined as the ability to live at par in relation with the standards/ norms of morality and virtue. It is a state of being approved as well. It reflects the internal aspects of a person.

On other hand, smartness can be termed as the having an elegance and prefessionalism in appearance and reflection of acumen in actions.

Therefore, considering these rooted attributes of "goodness" and "smartness", good people are not necessarily smart and smart people are not necessarily good.

Intelligence is allied with the analytical feature with respect to abstract parameters in life. Intelligence may be used to be good but the assurance of being good because of the usage of intelligence cannot be guaranteed at all. But if a person is having wisdom (conscience regarding right and wrong), a person will definitely emerge as a good person.