ABSTRACT
Intelligence lies less in being well versed in argument on certain topical issues than in having the kind of understanding that allows one to engage successfully with all manner of topics as they come and go, and as their importance waxes and wanes. We may, therefore, say that one dimension of the understanding that characterizes intelligence would be the ability to distinguish the empirical from the conceptual, to recognize either one when it crops up, and to be able to deal with each in the appropriate manner. We therefore need to consider whether there is a way of giving further specification to the kind of understanding that characterizes intelligence, such that intelligent people can be said to understand some things rather than others. The chapter considers the imagination, like intelligence itself and other mental concepts, is closely tied up with understanding and knowledge, and is necessarily contextual.
