Copyright 2010 Roberta Osborn. All rights reserved.
My Essays
Mothers’ Foresight
I wrote the following letter (never sent) to an Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science
in response to his article in a Scientific American quarterly.
Dear Dr. C___;
Last December I read your article “The Emergence of Intelligence” in the Scientific American
quarterly. A scan of the article prior to reading is instructive. We are shown pictures of a man
heaving a heavy object. We are shown the cerebral cortex of a man. We are shown a man throwing a
baseball. Clearly, the activities of men are depicted as the drivers in the emergence of intelligence. I
question this premise and think I can make a very clear argument to the contrary.
The quarterly is a nice survey of the current thinking about intelligence, from which I gather that the
distinguishing attributes of general human intelligence are considered to be:
self awareness
empathy
linguistic capability
foresight
Following Roberta’s Rule, “The simple truth is staring you in the face at all times,” I submit that the
rational approach to thinking about the source of these attributes is to look where they are most
clearly exercised—in the activities of women.
1. Self Awareness
The physical female brain has been described for decades now as more complex, with a more
substantial integration between the two halves of the brain. Women are far better at discussing their
emotions—they can think and feel at the same time, and communicate those thoughts and feelings at
a more robust level. Why do we continue to ignore this fact?
Could it truly be said that a person who cannot verbalize his emotional state is actually as aware of
that state, able to cognitively manipulate that state, as a person who can? Isn’t the ability to put a
mental condition into words a higher expression of self awareness? Isn’t that one of the factors we
use to discriminate between our intelligence and the intelligence of an animal? Can’t we, on this
basis, attribute a higher level of self awareness to the female than the male?
2. Empathy
I cannot imagine the argument that posits the male as anywhere near as empathetic as the female.
Current case in point: in Africa at this moment, there are groups of men sweeping the countryside
chopping off the arms of innocent women and children in retribution for losing power, leaving
crippling, permanent devastation in their wake. Can anyone honestly argue that this horror would
ever start as a female undertaking? Who is more empathetic, male or female?
3.
Linguistic Ability
We have known for a long time that women are more language-ready from early childhood. Does
anyone argue with this point?
4.
Foresight
Ah. Here we have the apparent basis of the argument that male activities are the drivers of human
intelligence.
Let’s discuss the pervasive “Darwinian” argument that some combination of the communication, social
organization, planning, and physical/neurological organization associated with hunting secured
human survival, and is therefore a reasonable explanation for the advancement of human
intelligence.
The first presumption is that hunting did the most to guarantee human survival. Actual studies of the
percentage of human sustenance that is obtained from hunting versus gathering in hunter-gatherer
societies show that a relatively small percentage of sustenance is obtained from hunting, that basic
human survival is primarily achieved through gathering--the efforts of women.
