Elentarri's Book Blog

TITLE:  The Six Secrets of Intelligence:

             Why Modern Education Doesn’t Teach Us How To Think For Ourselves

AUTHOR:  Craig Adams

PUBLICATION DATE:  2019

FORMAT:  ebook

DESCRIPTION:

"Some people have something to say in any conversation and can spot the hidden angles of completely unrelated problems; but how do they do it?

So many books, apps, courses, and schools compete for our attention that the problem isn’t a lack of opportunity to sharpen our minds, it’s having to choose between so many options. And yet, more than two thousand years ago, the greatest thinker of Ancient Greece, Aristotle, had already discovered the blueprint of the human mind. Despite the fact that the latest cognitive science shows his blueprint to be exactly what sharpens our reasoning, subtlety of thought, and ability to think in different ways and for ourselves, we have meanwhile replaced it with a simplistic and seductive view of intelligence, education and the mind.

Condensing that blueprint to six 'secrets', Craig Adams uncovers the underlying patterns of every discussion and debate we’ve ever had, and shows us how to be both harder to manipulate and more skilful in any conversation or debate – no matter the topic."

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REVIEW:

Craig Adams 'six secrets of intelligence' are deduction, induction, analogy, reality, evidence and meaning.  Adams provides the definitions and examples of the basic concepts and shows how this knowledge is useful in spotting and dismissing illogical statements.  The second half of the book deals with the modern education system and how it fails to teach the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric).  There is some interesting stuff in this book, but the organisation is a bit erratic with too much repetition and not enough examples.