A Child's Intelligence

One can expose the intellectual helplessness of the average adult by merely asking questions about their worldview, which, in many cases, will lead to an admission that he or she has merely assumed their worldview or a confused attempt to equate an assumption with knowledge.  In spite of this, adults are often believed to have some arbitrary threshold of intelligence.  Inversely, children, especially young children, are assumed to have a lower threshold of intelligence.  A few moments of rational reflection, however, can show that these beliefs are just assumptions based on a person's age--they are not sound assessments of those individuals.

Intelligence is not the prize of the young or the old, but it is instead a prize of those who are rational, for intelligence is nothing but rationality.  Making a judgment about someone's intelligence prior to conversing with them about philosophical or practical issues (even understanding the later involves some degree of rationality) is an example of making an ageist fallacy: people whose bodies are a certain age are commonly assumed by non-rationalists to have a certain level of intellectual ability or a lack of intellectual ability respectively, depending on their age.  There is no necessary connection between age and intelligence.

If an adult is not intelligent simply because they are an adult, then a child is not unintelligent simply because they are a child.  Although the ability to grasp reason is not contingent upon existing for some arbitrary number of years, many adults still trivialize the intellectual capacity of children, perhaps confusing the ability to use language well or experiences with an educational system with actual intelligence.  Intelligence is not merely separate from education, but it can exist without being communicated--indeed, a person, young or old, can be highly intelligent even if they do not have a means of consistently expressing it.

Young children can be rational even to the point of surprising those many years older than them!  As long as an adult is willing to realize that intelligence is not education, a full memory, articulate speech, or a wealth of life experiences, they will be able to recognize signs of genuine intelligence when children demonstrate them.  It is actually a sign of unintelligence when an adult pretends like age is any sort of definitive indicator of intellectual maturity.  Moreover, children may be more likely to embrace whatever intelligence they have if it is not trivialized.

I do not say this hoping that people in general will be regarded as particularly intelligent, for most children and adults do not reason things out in a sound way.  Many people from various age groups use logical fallacies and regularly make assumptions, so the biological age of their bodies has nothing to do with the developed ability to wield reason.  To assume that someone is intelligent just because it is possible for this to be the case is just as intellectually inept, ironically, as assuming that someone is not intelligent because of their young age or lack of life experiences.  Any assumption is an indefensible error, or else it would not be an assumption, but a provable fact.