andyyy

I do believe that nurture plays a much greater role than nature in intelligence. However, nature still plays a role.

"Intuitive intelligence" does exist. Take, for example, Srinivasa Ramanujan. Growing up in rural South India, he somehow developed exceptional talent in mathematics. No one pushed him to study get into IIT or study for JEE's - he was in a situation where everyone around him were farmers and agriculturalists. He was simply born a genius.

I know that this is very controversial, but this is somewhat evident in mathematics classes. Say you put some students, all with the same amount of preparation, together in one class. Some of them are going to get ahead because they have more "intellectual horsepower." If everyone puts in the same effort, some are simply going to get ahead much farther.

Jewish people are not smarter simply because they are Jewish. I have had many Jewish friends - both Ashkenezi and Sephardic - throughout my life, and they come from all sorts of economic backgrounds and are all really diverse. However, there are a significant number of exceptionally gifted Jewish people among the Jewish population. There is a higher TENDENCY (i.e., statistic) for them to be more gifted.

Same with Asians. There are tons of average Asians out there. However, there also quite A LOT of exceptionally gifted Asians as well. Many of the "average" Asians were exposed to the same environment and indoctrination, but some just shine more than others. I would say that culture is like the crank that starts up the innate intelligence and intuition engine.

So what do I conclude when I meet a Jewish math genius? His amazing intelligence does not derive simply from his being Jewish. It's because he's in the Ashkenazi Jewish population which TENDS to have more bright intellectuals. (Think of a bell curve.) Same goes for Taiwanese people and Indian Brahmins.

I agree that it can often be hard to define "Jewish." "Mihu yehudi" has been one of the greatest Israeli questions. However, when you look at things GENERALLY, you will notice that the Jewish population does indeed have more exceptional contributors to society, in terms of proportion. The majority of Jewish people out there would be "average," but the unusually high proportion of bright Jewish (or from another population) intellectuals who exist alongside their fellow "average" friends cannot be explained only by cultural factors.

An academically-centered culture can produce many bright intellectuals. However, the high number of EXCEPTIONAL intellectuals among certain populations (note "populations," not "race"), can only be explained by nature, not nurture. Of course we should take great care not to attribute all this to race, but rather a certain population (people within a roughly-defined gene pool).

Bottom line: nurture AND nature are both necessary to make a genius.