QuoteProject
Intelligence is a moral category.
Theodor Adorno
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that intelligence is not just about cognitive ability but is also tied to moral values and ethical considerations.

Theodor Adorno's assertion that 'Intelligence is a moral category' emphasizes the idea that intelligence should not be viewed merely as an intellectual capability or an accumulation of knowledge. Instead, it highlights the ethical implications of how intelligence is applied in society. Adorno believes that intelligence, when divorced from moral responsibility, can lead to harmful outcomes, thus urging us to consider the moral dimensions of our intellectual pursuits and decisions.

Themes

IntelligenceMoralityEthicsKnowledgeResponsibility

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion on education, one could use this quote to argue that teaching should also focus on moral reasoning.

More from Theodor Adorno

Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.
Theodor AdornoRead
What can oppose the decline of the west is not a resurrected culture but the utopia that is silently contained in the image of its decline.
Theodor AdornoRead
Wrong life cannot be lived rightly.
Theodor AdornoRead
Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they’re only animals.
Theodor AdornoRead
The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying-glass available.
Theodor AdornoRead
The culture industry not so much adapts to the reactions of its customers as it counterfeits them.
Theodor AdornoRead

Similar quotes

Those reformers who preach against image-worship, or what they denounce as idolatry - to them I say "Brothers, if you are fit to worship God-without-form discarding all external help, do so, but why do you condemn others who cannot do the same?"
Swami VivekanandaRead
How sad the world is, so beautiful yet so absurd.
Irene NemirovskyRead
If error is corrected whenever it is recognized as such, the path of error is the path of truth.
Hans ReichenbachRead
We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.
Jeremy IronsRead
People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws.
Thomas Babington MacaulayRead
I believe the returns on investment in the poor are just as exciting as successes achieved in the business arena, and they are even more meaningful!
Bill GatesRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.