INTELLIGENCE AS A COMPLEX SYSTEM: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY CONCEPTSS

Abstract

When planning any research with gifted students, one cannot ignore the issue of the essence of intelligence, because no matter what aspects such research would touch upon, the researcher must be aware of the concepts of intelligence and, most importantly, optimally choose one of them or successfully combine several, based on the tasks of his research (since there is still no single recognized theory of intelligence and methods for its development in students). In connection with the above, this article analyzes various concepts of intelligence and the principles of its development, based on the pragmatic task of motivating academically gifted students to apply the knowledge they have gained in natural sciences. Which is impossible to do without a brief historical excursion into the philosophical content. In particular, Plato's philosophy was based on his hypothesis about the soul, divided into three components: mind, will and drive. St. Augustine was ahead of R. Descartes, arguing that to doubt means to think, and to think means to exist. He thought of the mind as the unity of thinking, memory, will and imagination. F. Aquinas believed that the intellect makes experience understandable, highlighting general, non-sensual features. The student is not just a recipient of good from outside, but a living agent. All the teachers in the world will not benefit him if they do not adopt methods that will stimulate the activity of his mind. No one can know for another, everyone must know for himself; teachers are intended only to awaken the latent energy of our mind and help us to know. I. Kant stated that things in themselves cannot be known, we perceive the world only as our mind forces us to do so, that is, with the help of innate mental categories. T. Edison stated that the cells of the human body possess “intelligence”. These cells, taken together, constitute a community of innumerable cells. Man is thus not merely an individual, but a vast aggregate of myriads of individuals. Thus, the intelligence of man is composed of the combined intelligences of all his cells or “entities”. After the death of the body, these cells separate and disperse, but are preserved in a new form, serve again and again, live forever, and cannot be destroyed any more than matter. Finally, W. Wundt viewed the mind as an activity, not a substance. And the fact that the productivity of the mind is strongly influenced by context has led psychologists to argue that intelligence should be rethought as a productivity or capacity to act, which consists of many factors beyond the mental processing of information.