The five intelligences of the human being

If someone lets us say something like “you're an animal!” We shouldn't be offended. DWe should feel comforted that she has perceived our energy and vital capacity and that they have realized that we do not belong to the vegetable or mineral kingdoms, the other two alternatives that Mother Nature offers us.

It would be another thing to qualify us as a "bad animal" or "vermin", but belonging to the animal kingdom in the warm-blooded sub-kingdom is, clearly, a reason for satisfaction, a luck to celebrate.

If, on the other hand, they describe us as a “gorilla” or “orangutan”, they are telling us that we have insufficient mental development; but if they call us "primate" they are positioning us correctly in the subspecies to which we belong.

A relative rationality

In my teens the teachers told us that man was the only rational animal endowed with soul, made in the likeness of God. The science has questioned this belief of clear religious origin, since there are many animals that show a similar level of rationality.

On the other hand, the rational capacity of humans does not guarantee, by any means, that our behavior is always rational. And the explanation is very simple: we are not only rational. Our brain It has been shaped by evolution in five stages of operation, inherited from our predecessors. The Neurosciences and the Evolutionary Psychology have shown that we possess instinctual capacities (like the primitive reptilians), emotional memory capacities (like the first evolutionary mammals), intuitive rapid response capabilities (such as great primates), rational capabilities (inherited of the hominids that preceded us) and capacities of vision of the future and planning, the true differential characteristic of homo sapiens.

The brain is built by evolutionary phases

Each stage of Darwinian evolution has left its anatomical record in a new growth zone of the brain. Furthermore, the human brain is the part of the human body that has grown most dramatically with evolution. As the paleontologist Phillip V. Tobias in 1995: “Man, in just 2 to 3 million years, has increased the weight of the brain from 500 grams to 1,400 grams. An increase of almost a kilo of brain ”.

To the merely instinctive brain of reptiles, primitive mammals added the limbic system that allows to preserve memory of the emotions of pleasure or pain associated with their previous behaviors and, in consequence, gives them the ability to rectify or ratify the instinctual reaction, that is to say: the control of instincts, the ability to learn based on rewards and punishments. The primates acquired an added cerebral cortex that gives them the ability to relate their previous experiences with the current experience and intuit if it is convenient for them to reject or accept the food, the object or the company that is given to them It is offering.

According to paleontologists, the missing hominids developed polarization of the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex that allowed them to apply logic and deductive reasoning to the problems of their existence, with a response time tremendously inferior to the preceding intuition, but with a wonderful and amazing ability to build tools and progress in the form of lifetime. Language, art, culture and science are born thanks to this evolution of the neocortex.

The last stage of evolution has been the growth of the neocortex of homo sapiens until it exceeds the cranial capacity and spreads over the forehead over the eyes and nose, the so-called prefrontal lobes. Therein lies our new, more evolved and superior ability: the vision of the future, the ability to imagine before taking a deciding what the consequences may be, the ability to think long-term and follow principles and rules, etc.

The executive brain

The neuroscientist Elkhonon goldberg, disciple of the great neurologist Alexander Luria, denominates executive brain to the prefrontal lobes because they have the function and capacity to supervise and control the rest of the brain areas previous in the evolution. It is like a conductor who, with his baton, leads the different musicians who play together. But if we embrace the metaphor of the orchestra, we will have to recognize that, too often, the music comes out of tune or out of order.

The explanation is simple: every musician is one starlet impatient who has a tendency to anticipate the conductor's baton. In more scientific words: the order of arrival of external or internal stimuli to the different brain areas follows the same order of their appearance on the evolutionary scale and, consequently, each brain function receives the information when the previous areas have already begun to answer. It can only slow down or speed up the reaction, but for a few tenths of a second the proper notes have already sounded, whether or not they are appropriate for the overall harmony.

Five intelligences to adapt to the environment

If we call "intelligence" the ability to adapt to the stimuli of the existing environment to react in a way that offers the maximum benefit or minimizes harm (depending on the situation), we can affirm that the human brain is endowed with five intelligences, of increasing complexity and scope, following the evolutionary progression.

Instinctive intelligence comes from chromosomal inheritance. It allows us individual survival in the face of dangers already internalized genetically and collective survival at the level of the species. If a bee wants to stick its sting in us, our instinct makes us dodge it and try to eliminate it with a slap. Very beneficial reaction at street level, but which can cause us death by accident if we are driving a vehicle thrown at high speed on a highway.

Emotional intelligence: a new paradigm

The call emotional intelligence it incorporates rationality and foresight into the control of emotions that, without this filter, can make us fall into highly damaging visceral reactions. The insult or aggression that escapes us, not to mention the unfortunate crime of passion.

Intuitive intelligence allows us to make immediate decisions when there is no time to think rationally. It is based on the accumulation of previous experiences, it is the result of acquired experience. An automatic and rapid contrast with lived experiences gives us a clear reaction of acceptance or rejection of the situation, object or person that is offered to us. It is not infallible because our statistics of lived events are never infinite, but it should be a very serious warning to heed. Often the evaluation carried out later by rational intelligence causes us to act wrongly against the intuitive warning. It is up to each person to better calibrate their intuition and decide when it is convenient for them to listen to it and when not.

Rational intelligence (also called analytical, logical, deductive or equivalent adjectives), with a functioning totally contrary to intuition, requires time and calm. It has been the one that has allowed the creation of all that we call civilization and human progress, the one that has saved the pitfalls of the nature, which has given us tools to overcome our obvious biological inferiority to others animals. Also the one that has sometimes been put at the service of human evil, empowering to chilling extremes the ability to exploit and even take the lives of other people, animals, fauna, the climate, the planet whole. The one that can cause real disasters when you lack the foresight for the future. The human species has so admired this type of intelligence that for more than a century it has wanted to believe, erroneously, that it was the only intelligence we possessed, the only one worthwhile own. The famous IQ (IQ) was based on this idea.

Planning intelligence, the domain of the executive brain, is the great current slope of Psychology and, of course, of the teachings at all levels. Knowing how to coordinate all the musicians in the same symphony so that there are no discordant notes is the clear mission of orchestra conductors.

In conclusion

Applying any of the five intelligences individually is not good or bad in and of itself. A musician can play a fantastic "solo" or go out of tune until our ears break. But the clear objective of any orchestra is to interpret magnificent orchestral pieces in harmony and perfect coordination. You have to learn to play by following the conductor's baton.

Maybe we should say that evolution has endowed us with an intelligence composed of five dimensions to harmonize. In any case, it is about achieving an effective intelligence that combines in the most appropriate way to our individual and social well-being instincts, emotions, intuition, reasoning and the ability to planning.

Bibliographic references:

• Goldberg, E. (2002). The executive brain: frontal lobes and civilized mind. Review.
• Guilera, L. (2006). Beyond emotional intelligence: the five dimensions of the mind. Thomson Auditorium.
• Ledoux, J. (1999). The emotional brain. Planet.