Native Intellectual Ability

Native intellectual ability is a term that refers to human intellect divorced from racial, cultural, and educational features. This area of human mentality has been a source of debate amongst philosophers and scientists since the 18th century where it was used as a method of explaining variations in brain size and structures as a means of estimating comparative intelligence and abilities among racial groups. Spawned primarily by white, male, European thinkers this school of thought has been used (often inadvertently) to support racial prejudice and to promote eugenics movements (controlling the reproductive rights of "undesirables"). Thankfully, most of this type of thinking has been discredited with the realization that there is virtually no way to separate "native abilities" from the cultural, social, and educational factors that a person is exposed to while growing.