Intelligence, Wisdom, and Creativity: Three is Better Than One

Theory, assessment, and instruction in the field of human abilities have tended to emphasize intelligence at the expense of wisdom and creativity. Were these three abilities indistinguishable, such an emphasis would be understandable and acceptable. But a review of the literature as well as data I have recently col-lected suggest that the three abilities are distinguishable, and that there are im-portant differences among them. Moreover, present measurements and in-struction even of intelligence are to a much narrower operationalization of the construct than would be ideal. It is argued that educational psychologists and others need to give more serious attention to all three of these constructs and their interrelationships. What do we mean when we say that Einstein was intelligent, or that Solo-mon was wise, or that da Vinci was creative? Or, to take some more mun-dane examples, what does it mean to say that John may be intelligent but he just isnt creative, or If only the presidents wisdom matched his intelli-gence, we might have averted this mess, or My grandfather, a self-educated man, might not have done well on intelligence tests, but he had more wisdom than all Harvard professors combined. In each of these statements, some assertion is made about a persons intel-lectual abilities. Clearly, the intention is to make a different statement about each of these people. Indeed, we know that although Einstein, Solomon, and da Vinci are all renowned for their extraordinary mental feats, the nature of these feats diffiers in every case, and so do the abilities that gave rise to them. But what are intelligence, wisdom, and creativity, and how do they differ? Furthermore, do wisdom and creativity even differ from intelligence in a way that makes it possible reliably to distinguish them from intelligence?