Excerpt from The Psychological Methods of Testing Intelligence

The Objection is Often made that the problem Of intellectual diagnosis can in no way be successfully dealt with until we have exact knowledge Of the gen eral nature Of intelligence itself. But this Objection does not seem to me pertinent. In science there is no such precise sequence Of the different research prob lems. We measure electro-motive force without knowing what electricity is, and we diagnose with very delicate test methods many diseases the real nature of which we know as yet very little. Indeed, it may be asserted, quite on the contrary, that prog ress in testing intelligence may Shed light from a new angle upon the theoretical study Of intelligence and thus supplement the psychology Of thinking in a valuable manner. If it turns out, for Instance, that certain symptoms are relevant and others irrelevant for the differentiation Of the intelligence shown by different persons, if, again, one series of these symp toms exhibit a high degree, another series a less de gree of intercorrelation, then our knowledge Of the structure Of intelligence must thereby be little by lit tle increased, and thus there will develop a fruitful reciprocity between the two phases Of investigation, theoretical and applied.

Naturally, we cannot begin our work without a pre liminary definition Of intelligence, however pro visional it may be. And this definition must be neither too broad nor too narrow.

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