THE BASIC VOLITIONAL INTELLIGENCE HYPOTHESIS
 
A) THE HYPOTHESIS
 
My basic volitional intelligence hypothesis is, in essence, just a simple analogy.
 
It amounts to this: Intelligence is simply “cognitive fitness”.
 
Cognitive fitness is like physical fitness in several different ways.
 
1) A man´s maximum possible potential physical fitness is set at birth by hereditary factors. But the degree of said potential physical fitness which he actualizes over the course of his life depends on how much he chooses to engage in physical exercise!
 
Any random couch potato – who is initially not physically fit – can (provided, that he is equipped with a physically non-damaged body) increase his physical fitness, over time, by means of his own volitional effort. All he must do is: Choose to engage in physical exercise - sustained over time!
 
And – it is precisely the same thing with intelligence! Any random man of modest intelligence (provided he possesses a physically non-damaged brain) can increase his intelligence, over time, by means of his own volitional effort. All he must do is: Choose to develop – and maintain – an active mind over a significant span of time.
 
A person´s actualized level of intelligence is not something that just “happens to him”. Men earn their intelligence. The level of every individual´s intelligence – provided only that his brain has not been physically damaged – depends on said individual´s choices.
 
2) So, everyone - and their brother, and their sister - can begin to grow their intelligence when they are young. “All” that they need to do is to make a conscious decision to develop a long-range and ambitious purpose, when they are young. That long-range purpose would presumably be a personal dream of some kind – e.g. to become a successful businessman (e.g. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates), to become a filthy rich investor (e.g. Warren Buffett), to become a brilliant theoretical physicist (e.g. Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking) - or whatever. For the sake of achieving a long-range and ambitious purpose the subject would need to develop and maintain an active mind. He would need to engage in hard thinking as a matter of routine. And – hard thinking sustained over time constitutes cognitive exercise – which, it stands to reason, increases the level of the subject´s intelligence.
 
3) The race to develop a higher, and then higher still, level of intelligence is not a sprint. It is instead a marathon race. Just as it takes time – quite a lot of time – to develop a high degree of physical fitness by means of exercising physically – so also it takes quite a lot of time to develop a high degree of intelligence by means of sustained cognitive activity.
 
4) I suspect that the mind´s response to cognitive effort – in the form of an increase in the subject´s intelligence – is an issue of the brain´s so-called “plasticity”. I.e. when a subject puts forth some major and protracted cognitive effort – the neurons in his brain gradually form useful new connections (“new synapses”) – with a lasting increase in the subject´s intelligence as the long-range result.
 
B) UPWARDS AND DOWNWARDS CAUSATION
 
Increased intelligence – this phenomenon would be an example of the “downward causation” which the philosopher Ayn Rand argued must exist.
 
One thing we know is that the physical entity which is the living brain of a human being gives rise to (i.e. “causes”) the consciousness of individual men. So - phenomena/entities in the “world of the physical” can cause phenomena in the “world of consciousness”. (This is “upward causation”.) The “world of the physical” can and does interact causally with the “world of consciousness”.
 
Well – why cannot the causation go “downwards” also - from the “world of consciousness” down to the “world of the physical” – as well as “upwards”- from “the world of the physical” up to the “world of consciousness”? We can, in fact, easily perceive examples of such “downwards” causation. The consciousness of individual men cause their physical bodies to do physical things “out there in reality” all the time.
 
For example, every single morning, shortly after I wake up – my consciousness/my mind wills (i.e. causes) my body to get up out of bed and walk to the bathroom to do my ablutions and wash up. And subsequently, my consciousness/my mind causes my body to commit reams and reams of other physical actions throughout the rest of the day. And – finally, in the evening – after an entire day of countless physical actions caused by my consciousness – I will my body to undress itself, don my pyjamas and go to bed.
 
C) HOW DOES THIS CAUSATION WORK?
 
Well, consciousness is a process. As is indicated by the well-known expression “stream of consciousness”. Consciousness never stands still. The content of a man´s consciousness changes from moment to moment. If a man introspects - then he should see clearly that his thinking is a process. When he is in focus his mind follows a train of thought. He reasons – step by step – from premises to conclusions.
 
It stands to reason that there must be some “consciousness analogue” of energy to drive the process of thinking. And this “mental energy” must be what enables the consciousnesses of an individual man to physically first influence the neurons in the man´s brain – and subsequently cause the brain to send electrical/chemical signals through the man´s motor nerves – and thereby will the movements of said man´s body.
 
It seems more likely than not that sometimes – namely whenever we will ourselves to act “out there in reality” - the thoughts in our minds/consciousness cause physical effects on our brains – which effects in their turn cause physical effects on the nervous system of our bodies – which in their turn cause our muscles to move in the ways we will them to.
 
So – the point here is that what goes on in our minds/consciousness does in fact have causal effects on the “physical world” – via our respective own bodies. This is not telekinesis – nor is it the Primacy of Consciousness. And the causal efficacy of consciousness in no way whatsoever implies that a supernatural consciousness (“God”) might exist and might rule the universe. All I am saying is that we know – from an awful lot of empirical evidence – that the consciousness of individual higher animals is so constituted that it can bring about physical effects “out there in reality” – via willed physical actions of the animals´ respective bodies. [Note 1]
 
Now – neuroscientists have demonstrated that when individual men commit new knowledge to their memories – they do so by means of establishing some sort of physical connections between certain neurons in a certain region of the subject´s brain (the region devoted to memory). This is another example of “downward causation” involving human consciousness.
 
And – this example supports my hypothesis that sustained cognitive activity on the part of an individual man, gradually and over time, results in a physical alteration of his brain – with an enduring higher level of intelligence as a result.
 
D) THE CASH VALUE OF MY HYPOTHESIS
 
The philosopher Ayn Rand once observed that an overwhelming majority of men down through the ages – in all historical eras and in all societies – have acted as their own destroyers. In all the history of mankind almost all societies have been tyrannies. The relatively free and civilized societies have been the exception rather than the rule. An observer might conclude that man – for some strange reason of his own – prefers to live in a state of misery and tyranny!
 
Ayn Rand held that philosophy is the motor of history. The first causes of historical trends are the choices of man´s philosophers! The philosophers lead, by means of formulating basic views of reality (i.e. philosophies or religions). These views of reality are learned by the rest of humanity. And the masses of mankind proceed to act on the implications of those views in issues of values. The philosophers lead. The rest of mankind follows.
 
According to Rand most of the philosophy espoused by the philosophers of mankind were comprised of falsehoods. Most of mankind´s philosophies and religions were intellectual frauds. But – why, oh, why were intellectual fraudsters so successful down through the ages in leading mankind into perdition?
 
Why have so many of the fellow men of the philosophers taken the bait? And wound up getting hurt as a result? Ayn Rand seemed to think “They couldn´t help it!” I have over the years of my life read everything published by Ayn Rand that I could get my hands on – and nowhere in Ayn Rand´s voluminous writings, does she blame the majority of the masses of mankind morally for being taken in by the philosophers. As far as I can tell she held the view that the masses of mankind merely made an awful lot of innocent errors of knowledge. Ayn Rand seemed to perceive the human race as being comprised of innocent victims.
 
Me – I perceive many, many of my fellow men as being morally culpable victims rather than innocent victims. Most of my fellow men down through the ages have defaulted on the responsibility of critical thinking. That is why they were fooled into tolerating the tyrants and vicious killers who have ruled the majority of all human societies. Let´s be clear. Down through the centuries and millennia of history most men were victims – not perps. But they were not innocent victims. They shared the blame for the vicious crimes which the perps visited on them. The perps would not have gotten away with it if the victims had not let them do so.
 
Since I believe that intelligence is volitional – I believe that all men (who are equipped with physically undamaged brains) could have developed the intelligence required to see through, and subsequently reject, the philosophical fallacies perpetrated by mankind´s philosophical leaders down through the ages.
 
E) CONCLUSION
 
All men, and not just the philosophers, can develop the intelligence required to grasp philosophy. That is the cash value of my volitional intelligence hypothesis.
 
The centuries of suffering and misery which mankind has lived through were not necessary! If only more men had bothered to put forth cognitive effort an enormous amount of misery could have been avoided.
 
[Note 1] The only way (as far as I am aware) in which a consciousness can have any causal effect whatsoever on something (anything) physical – is by means of some (“mental”) action in the subject´s (i.e. in a higher animal´s) consciousness first effecting a change in the physical state of the subject´s brain – with subsequent physical effects on the subject´s nervous system – and, finally, this chain of events causing the motor action of the subject´s muscles – the motor action which was what the subject´s consciousness initially was willing to happen.
 
I completely deny the existence of telekinesis or of any reality-ruling God(s) – and I deny the efficacy of wishful thinking. The objective fact that the consciousness of a living animal can cause certain delimited effects “out there in (physical) reality” should not be taken to imply the Primacy of Consciousness.