The Concept of Intelligence in Psychology as a Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness |
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| Authors: | Mark Flynn |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Educational Psychology, University of Saskatchewan College of Education, 28 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, S7N OX1 |
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| Abstract: | During the 20th century, mainstream psychologists exhibited a dogmatic belief in the reality of the abstraction of human intelligence as a cluster of functional behaviours. In confusing this abstraction for the concrete totality of the human intellectual experience, psychologists have committed what Alfred North Whitehead calls a "fallacy of misplaced concreteness" (1925/1967, p. 58). That is, they have mistaken a narrowly abstract conception of intelligence for concrete reality. This mistake has contributed to a dogmatic and naive ignorance of other possible explanations for intelligent human experience. If psychology truly desires to be a legitimate science in endeavouring to understand human intelligence, it must take into account concrete aesthetic experiences that are fundamental to the growth of creative consciousness and human knowledge. |
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| Keywords: | functional behaviours causal relation abstraction fallacy of misplaced concreteness concrete aesthetic experience social efficiency eugenics mental hygiene normal dysfunctional naive science |
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