“It is dangerous to trust only intelligence.”

What is intelligence? Intelligence is what sets us apart from other creatures in the animal kingdom. It gives us the ability to make rational decisions and think beyond just satisfying our basic physiological needs. The issue of whether one should trust intelligence alone can be a contentious one. On one hand, it provides us with an ability to reason and comprehend things around us. It gives us the ability to evaluate, consider, and make decisions based on the choices we have. On the other side of the fence, there are those who argue that it is dangerous to trust only intelligence as it disregards the human emotions and other values that are inherently virtuous. I am in agreement with the latter point of view.

We are not robots; we feel and we care for people and things. We all come with a different set of emotions and ideas and that is what that makes us human. We all have the ability to form emotional attachments, and our individual reactions to people and things are unique. Emotions can drive a person to perform kind and compassionate deeds. Of course, emotions can also drive a person to perform negative deeds.However, emotions is what that provides us with a sense of conscience, something that intelligence alone cannot provide. Intelligence without conscience can be dangerous. Consider this. A serial killer might have the intelligence of selecting his or victims and the cold rationale of choosing the method of execution. Without a conscience and a disregard for the human life, that intelligence is useless because it drives the killer to perform cruel deeds. There are events in history that have proven this. Take a look at the events that occurred during the WW2. Adolf Hitler was a highly intelligent man who had the acumen and efficiency of carrying out his agenda, but the death toll that resulted shocked the world. Over 6 million Jews was killed in the course of pursuing Hitler's agenda for racial eugenics and this episode remains an indelible black mark in history.

Consider the other values that intelligence alone cannot provide. Morality and ethics are what sets a restrictions on the types of human behavior that are considered acceptable. We fear repercussions from our peers, or from the society as a whole and that is what tempers our behavior. Trusting intelligence alone might drive us to disregard those restrictions for if we depend on logic alone we act in ways that makes the most sense in a certain situation. Take for example a family living in hunger. There is only so much food to feed the family and by plain logic alone, it is feasible to kill off the person that is the weakest in the family. However, killing is not acceptable by society's rules.

For all the reasons I have presented above, I would like to reiterate my agreement that trusting intelligence alone can be a dangerous thing. We cannot disregard the emotional factors that drives the ways a human thinks and acts. Emotions provides us with a sense of conscience as well as put constraints on the types of behavior that are deemed acceptable of society, which is something intelligence alone might tend to neglect.