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who is the smartest character in terms of raw intellect


Godbreaker

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Now that we've included "street smart" (I think):

Street smart: Tyrion

Raw intellect: Missandei

Wise: Aemon, Daenerys and Bloodraven (maybe)

Battle smart: Robb and Jon

Raw cunning: Varys and Littlefinger

What the hell? Can anybody please explain why you consider Dany as wise?!

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What the hell? Can anybody please explain why you consider Dany as wise?!

Well. Walking into a raging inferno to kill yourself and walking out with three dragons makes one wise, I guess. Even though she had no idea it would happen.

That said she is alot wiser now than when she started and all this character devlopment foretells something happening good for her. I hope all these POV chapters do not just mean she dies soon.

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Well. Walking into a raging inferno to kill yourself and walking out with three dragons makes one wise, I guess. Even though she had no idea it would happen.

That said she is alot wiser now than when she started and all this character devlopment foretells something happening good for her. I hope all these POV chapters do not just mean she dies soon.

I think Dany is of above-average intelligence, often capable of shrewd observations, and possesses a certain cunning.

But, she's not particularly wise, nor is she an intellectual.

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Davo is a street smart Ned


cunning-Varys(he got 2 Targs)


Wise-Pylos(a better maester than pycelle)


Intellect-Missandri(brilllent translater , if she wanted to, she could speak giant)


Book smart-Shireen(unlike Joffrey, she love books and is still alive)


Battle Smart is Tyrion(first battle he plan and he had a great Idea)


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What the hell? Can anybody please explain why you consider Dany as wise?!

That's why that "maybe" is there. I see the potential. And in my opinion, she seems to posses above average intelligence, something I think, in my opinion, most people disregard when thinking of her.

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As Lady of Dragonstone notes, it's hard to come up with an agreed upon measure of intelligence! For example, I don't tend to think of wisdom and ethics as products of the capacity for reason, nor do I think that things like ambition, love, pride, compassion, necessarily diminish the capacity for reason: they can sometimes enhance it, in my opinion, providing opportunities that cause us to push to their limits our natural intellective abilities. This doesn't, of course, undermine your "equation" for measuring intelligence, it simply suggests that those other personality traits might be in the plus rather than the minus column. Would LF's intelligence be so highly developed without his driving ambition? Possibly, but I tend to think that it has been sharpened and enhanced through his drive to succeed. But I think this may also make him not very wise (he's not alone in this, in-world!). He doesn't care about the larger costs of his activities, nor even whether his goals are actually good for himself. I don't think this makes him any less intelligent, but I think it makes him unwise. I understand, though, that the definition with which you're working would try to factor in such "self-destructive" aspects in trying to get a final "sum" of a character's intelligence. However, the idea that Tyrion is less intelligent than Varys or LF simply because he doesn't manipulate situations to his own advantage was the point to which I was responding. Might not Tyrion be more intelligent, but simply less ambitious, or even, more wise? (Actually, I think that Varys is wise, though I think LF is lacking in the wisdom category.)

[For what it's worth, I have to disagree about ethics: I think that our ethical training and sensibilities are quite distinct from our intellect, although an intelligent person can probably provide a strong post hoc rationale for his or her ethical choices. There are plenty of highly intelligent people with the ethical capacity of small children (I have in mind my department chair here...).]

I think of ethics and wisdom as results of the capacity for reason because to a large extent ethics are employed (or not employed) depending on whether someone reasons that they're worth (or not worth) whatever sacrifice it takes to employ them (or not ...). So without reason there are no ethics. As for wisdom, that's really just the application of intellect to information gained through experience. So without reason there is no wisdom.

Your point about the way emotions can drive the improvement of intellect in a positive fashion is spot on though. Those pesky feels are a double-edged sword.

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I think ethics are mostly a post hoc rationalization, where the actual moral decisions happen on an emotional level. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure research supports that view.

As for emotions driving the inprovement of intellect, emotions drive everything. There's this weird notion that intelligence is purely rational decision making, which is pretty much impossible for two reasons: limited computing ability, and the sinple fact that pure reason can not tell you anything about objectves, only how to reach them. You can't even form a purely rational argument why you should get up in the morning and not just let yourself die. Any drive to develop any abilities at all has to be grounded at the emotional level.

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I think ethics are mostly a post hoc rationalization, where the actual moral decisions happen on an emotional level. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure research supports that view.

As for emotions driving the inprovement of intellect, emotions drive everything. There's this weird notion that intelligence is purely rational decision making, which is pretty much impossible for two reasons: limited computing ability, and the sinple fact that pure reason can not tell you anything about objectves, only how to reach them. You can't even form a purely rational argument why you should get up in the morning and not just let yourself die. Any drive to develop any abilities at all has to be grounded at the emotional level.

good post :agree:

It's not as easily defined as people would like to think, yes we can name people who changed the world due to their IQ like Einstein but then you get a Leonardo Da Vinci who was also a genius and he used his emotions to put his foot print firmly on the pages of history.

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Smartest? I don't know, but I think it's safe to say none of the Starks.

Arya's pretty clever, as evidenced by her survival and rapid rise amongst the Faceless Men. Robb's a strategic genius, just not a political one. Bran's a freakin' prophet and now he's connected to the Tree-LAN. Jon's political and strategic acumen are evidenced in his sound advice to Stannis, who would have croaked long before had he not listened, and his deft dealings with the wildlings, the Karstarks, and the Iron Bank. Sansa's learning and is smart enough to survive being surrounded by more enemies than just about anyone. Rickon's too young to judge. Eddard was smart enough to help bring down the Targaryens and served well as Hand of the King (while Robert was still alive).

They're certainly not dumb.

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