Unpacking the Notion of Genius
Photo by Philip Oroni on Unsplash
I suppose if you live long enough the world as you know it begins to settle itself into a pattern in the manner of a puzzle. Truth is, I was never very good at those, but every now and then I get the feeling that I can see something I couldn’t before, that maybe I’ve gained a glimmer of understanding of what was previously incomprehensible. A recent post by political rhetoric scholar Ryan Skinnell came my way via the JSTOR daily, offering one of those clarifying moments. It was about the myth of the universal genius. Not just a myth, but a destructive one. Snippet:
As a theory of human exceptionalism, the notion of genius blossomed during the Renaissance as philosophers, scientists, theologians, and poets sought out and celebrated ideals of human ability and achievement.
Starting with Georgio Vasari’s glowing tribute to Leonardo da Vinci, Skinnell writes:
As the concept of universal genius evolved throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, it celebrated unique talent and cognitive superiority. But the shift from deep learning and thinking to divine inspiration and insight had profound social and political consequences.
Not coincidentally, universal genius emerged in a period of expanding European imperialism, at which point there was intensifying global conflict over which of the world’s people were the most advanced, and therefore the most entitled to rule others.
Geniuses, in the world of colonial expansion, couldn’t arise from among women or the brown people who were deemed perpetual subjects. Witness the strange phrenological narrative that attaches to 19th century racial scientists who were puzzled by the genius of Frederick Douglass. See them bending over backward to “prove” that it came from—whiteness!
Excerpt:
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. describes the scene cogently: “Imagine if Ulysses S. Grant had died during the Civil War. And imagine if scientists then decided to cut him up like a frog in biology class to find out if his skeleton looked more English, say, or Irish. This was scandalous.”
It was.
The problem doesn’t lie with exceptionally gifted people, but with those who deify them and recode exceptionality so it can only have a singular look. When genius became attached to gene, the results could be nothing but horrific. Skinnell’s point is that learning, study and effort can better guide us to think about extraordinarily accomplished people. We need to rethink the attributes of the package we call genius.
