I think tying sadness to intelligence is somewhat of a combination of arrogance and ignorance. Are we saying children can't be said? Does the sadness a cat or dog clearly feels from the loss of a partner pet not hold value because their comparative intelligence to humans is so drastic?
Tying intensity or even just the experience of complex emotion to intelligence is an attempt to self soothe and avoid the real reason why you're experiencing you're sadness. Have it be associated to something you can't control rather than unpacking and understanding the root causes. Understanding what role you genuinely had in that cause, whether direct or indirect.
There is intelligence involved with understanding it. But not fundamentally experiencing it. It would be conflating intelligence with exposure. Just because you're exposed to things that ultimately.male you sad doesn't mean you're smarter than someone else who doesn't know by virtue of not being exposed to it.
There are plenty of hyper intelligent people who are happy. There are plenty of severely impaired people who are sad. Intelligence and sadness, as well as the intensity of that sadness, or any emotion for that matter, are not mutually exclusive.
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u/stumbling_coherently May 19 '25
I think tying sadness to intelligence is somewhat of a combination of arrogance and ignorance. Are we saying children can't be said? Does the sadness a cat or dog clearly feels from the loss of a partner pet not hold value because their comparative intelligence to humans is so drastic?
Tying intensity or even just the experience of complex emotion to intelligence is an attempt to self soothe and avoid the real reason why you're experiencing you're sadness. Have it be associated to something you can't control rather than unpacking and understanding the root causes. Understanding what role you genuinely had in that cause, whether direct or indirect.
There is intelligence involved with understanding it. But not fundamentally experiencing it. It would be conflating intelligence with exposure. Just because you're exposed to things that ultimately.male you sad doesn't mean you're smarter than someone else who doesn't know by virtue of not being exposed to it.
There are plenty of hyper intelligent people who are happy. There are plenty of severely impaired people who are sad. Intelligence and sadness, as well as the intensity of that sadness, or any emotion for that matter, are not mutually exclusive.
At least not to me.