A few modern philosopher's assert that an individual's intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism.... With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.
Interpretation
Intelligence can be developed through effort and practice, contrary to the belief that it is fixed.
Alfred Binet challenges the notion that intelligence is immutable and encourages a proactive approach to personal development. He emphasizes that through methodical training and practice, individuals can enhance their mental faculties, including attention, memory, and judgment, thus allowing them to become smarter than they were initially. This perspective promotes a growth mindset, highlighting the importance of persistence and dedication in fostering intellectual growth.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development, one could use this quote to inspire students to believe in their ability to learn and grow.
Some recent philosophers seem to have given their moral approval to these deplorable verdicts that affirm that the intelligence of an individual is a fixed quantity, a quantity that cannot be augmented. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism; we will try to demonstrate that it is founded on nothing.
The great thing about working out at a gym is that if you put in effort, you get very obvious results. The same should be true of college. A professor’s job is to teach students how to see their minds growing in the same way they can see their muscles grow when they look in a mirror.
Libraries have had a long history of dealing with authoritarian organizations demanding reader records - who's read what - and this has led to people being rounded up and killed.
Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.
The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.
I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells them that the book is unfit to read.
Introducing a spelling test to a student by saying, 'Let's see how many words you know,' is different from saying, 'Let's see how many words you know already.' It is only one word, but the already suggests that any words the child knows are ahead of expectation and, most important, that there is nothing permanent about what is known and not known.
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