ABSTRACT
Successful intelligence is one's ability to succeed in life, as measured either by one's own standards or the standards of others. Successful intelligence is much broader as a construct than is intelligence as it is traditionally defined. This chapter discusses different ways of being smart and different ways of using the smarts. Many people with modest test scores are nevertheless highly intelligent. To be successfully intelligent is to have the ability to succeed in what someone or others value for them in life. It requires abilities to think well in one or more of three different ways: critical-analytic intelligence, creative-synthetic intelligence, and practical-contextual intelligence. The chapter shows that the Taiwanese conception of intelligence includes a broad cognitive factor, of the kind found in conventional theories of intelligence, but also includes interpersonal, intrapersonal, self-assertion, and self-abnegation factors. Clearly, the concept of intelligence in Taiwan is quite a bit richer than one of just a general intellectual ability.
