Knowledge and Intelligence – (Things You Should Know)

Dear reader, have you ever thought about what distinguishes the successful and superior in life from others who have had less luck in it? It may be intelligence or knowledge, and it may be both intelligence and knowledge.

What is knowledge?! And what is intelligence? In this article, we will list logical answers to questions that you may ask yourself; To know the difference between knowledge and intelligence.

Knowledge is the perception and understanding of facts about a topic. The awareness consists of practical experiences or training and benefiting from the experiences of others. With the accumulation and coordination of information and linking them logically, these mind’s rationalizations produce a coherent awareness and knowledge.

Intelligence is a mental skill and a means of assimilation and perception. This skill gives man the ability to analyze, plan, build conclusions, and quickly understand and perceive. Intelligence skills are acquired naturally from genetics or through the person’s close environment. 

What is the difference between knowledge and intelligence?

Of course, there is a vast difference between knowledge and intelligence. The following points show you the essential difference between knowledge and intelligence.

  • Intelligence is acquired innately, i.e., from the acquisitions that a person receives at birth, in the sense that it is one of the gifts that God bestows; A person is born with this intelligence.
  • Knowledge is not born with it. Rather, it is acquired through education, training, and experience.

Intelligence is difficult to increase or even control because it is given to a person at birth. We provide an example to bring the idea closer that a person is born with features that cannot be changed even if they are beautified. 

Sometimes, intelligence can be controlled in a limited way. Like, some thinking and analysis skills, which can be learned through training and practice. But the general rule is that intelligence is naturally hereditary and difficult to increase.

Brilliant people have more cognitive skills than others, and they use them in their lives. Until they are finished, they remain wise to death. Low intelligence, they have limited resources of intelligence skills and remain so until their end.

On the contrary, knowledge can be increased and controlled through direct acquisition or sensory perception. For example, reading the books, knowledge will transfer to you from this book (a little more), and if you watch a documentary film on the same topic, the knowledge about this topic increases more and more. In this way, we grow knowledge and control it. 

What is the relationship between knowledge and intelligence?

Intelligence helps to acquire knowledge by analyzing and coordinating data and information and extracting the knowledge in it. The higher the intelligence, the more knowledge is extracted and obtained from the same information.

Intelligence speeds up the process of acquiring knowledge. The more intelligent can deduce quickly and notice the relationship between information more quickly.

Intelligence helps a lot in acquiring knowledge, as it represents the central processing unit, as it coordinates, arranges, and analyzes cognitive information and makes conclusions based on it. You can say that intelligence is the soul of knowledge. Intelligence and knowledge are two sides of the same coin!

Does knowledge generate intelligence?

Knowledge cannot create human faculties and skills that depend on intelligence, even if it is an exercise in intelligence. 

Knowledge of all kinds cannot generate intelligence, even if it works to increase it through training the mind with knowledge. As we have clearly stated, intelligence is innate, and without it, knowledge has no value.

Sometimes, intelligence can be controlled in a limited way. Like, some thinking and analysis skills, which can be learned through training and practice. But the general rule is that intelligence is naturally hereditary and difficult to increase.

Does intelligence generate knowledge?

Intelligence helps to acquire knowledge and accelerate its acquisition. But without information, intelligence cannot generate knowledge itself. 

Intelligence helps transform data and information into knowledge faster and better. With intelligence, you can quickly change the experiences around you into knowledge. You can also benefit from the information by generating more knowledge.

Knowledge is acquired through education, observation, and perception. Education includes the experiences of other scholars and thinkers. Observation includes analyzing and scrutinizing what is around you using the five senses, such as a picture or a recorded movie, etc. Therefore, intelligence alone cannot create knowledge; it only helps in acquiring it.

Is intelligence valuable without knowledge?

A person cannot depend in life only on his intelligence without acquiring knowledge. Brightness comes to its role after the realization of knowledge and the acquisition of information.

Without knowledge, there is not enough information that intelligence analyzes and coordinates to develop solutions to problems or suggestions for different patterns of actions. 

Intelligence is like the machine, and knowledge is the final product. Intelligence here is the machine that works on raw materials (information) to produce knowledge in its various forms. Without the raw material, the machine does not work.

Is knowledge valuable without intelligence?

Knowledge becomes useful and valuable after taking intelligence as an accompanying companion. As a result, it must be accepted that there is no useful knowledge without sufficient intelligence to benefit from it.

So knowledge without intelligence is often worthless.

Types of intelligence

After the development of science, it became difficult to describe a person as not being intelligent. 

A person may not be intelligent in one subject and brilliant in another, and vice versa. There are intelligent people in many areas, and others are uniquely intelligent in one field only. Intelligence is not only one type.

The scientist William Krams divided intelligence into many types, namely:

  • Kinematic intelligence: A person with kinetic intelligence means moving creatively, whether in construction or other work, or practicing a particular sport that requires proper physical movement.
  • Social interactive intelligence, a person prefers to participate with people and does not like isolation but always participates. Also, a person who possesses social intelligence has a great ability to understand people’s moods and feelings.
  • Linguistic intelligence: a person has a remarkable ability to speak fluently, and they may tend to learn more than one language quickly. Besides, they have a solid verbal memory that helps them, and they prefer discussions, attending meetings, and any activities that require public speaking and the like.
  • Logical intelligence, its owners prefer logic, abstract values ​​, and analysis in knowing the causes and consequences, and they often speak numbers.
  • Spatial intelligence: Those who possess this type of intelligence have a wide imagination, especially in pictorial matters, and they have talents similar to the skill of drawing; for example, we find them working in drawing, engineering, or design.
  • Musical intelligence includes people with a high sense and musical taste, who work on tasting sounds differently and creatively, making them work as composers or musicians.

Types of knowledge

There are also many types of knowledge, and each person may be identified in a specific type. 

We can divide knowledge into five parts and types: 

  • Procedural knowledge: This knowledge refers to the ability on how using and operating machinery, cycling, playing soccer, and so on.
  • Conceptual knowledge is the method of implementing and coordinating information and mental knowledge.
  • Structural knowledge includes structuring facts and monuments according to a deeper meaning to produce knowledge capable of understanding the world and the causes and consequences of its features.

Conclusion

Knowledge is the perception and understanding of facts about a topic. The awareness consists of practical experiences or training and benefiting from the experiences of others. With the accumulation and coordination of information and linking them logically, these mind’s rationalizations produce a coherent awareness and knowledge.

Intelligence is a mental skill and a means of assimilation and perception. This skill gives man the ability to analyze, plan, build conclusions, and quickly understand and perceive. Intelligence skills are acquired naturally from genetics or through the person’s close environment.

Intelligence is acquired innately, the person receives at birth, in the sense that it is one of the gifts that God bestows; A person is born with this intelligence.

We are not born with knowledge. Rather, it is acquired through education, training, and experience.