Abstract:

Metic intelligence – what the ancient Greeks simply called “metis” – is a mode of practical intelligence, that is easier to recognize than to talk about. But since Marcel Détienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant characterized this mode of intelligence in a rather exhaustive way.and uttered the hypothesis that this mode of practical intelligence is not only a characteristic of Greek culture in the antiquity, but also an anthropologic universal, publications from all parts of the world and on issues so different as theoretical physics, medical education, management and organizations or gender studies on Egyptian women, show the usefulness of metic intelligence today.

After reporting on the original characterization by Détienne and Vernant and on further characterizations of metic intelligence or “metis” – a term in the dictionary of not translatable notions in European philosophies – my paper will present an overview of some of the more recent publications on "metis" dealing with its contemporary usefulness.

The main parts of my contribution will then deal with three essential questions. First the questions “Can metic intelligence be trained?” and “Should metic intelligence be trained? ” will be addressed. After giving reasons for answering these two questions both in an affirmative way, the paper will deal with the question “How can metic intelligence be trained?.

Fortunately, there is more than one way. Some of the methods or training metic intelligence, though meanwhile temporarily rather forgotten, date back to the century of Enlightenment or even to pre-platonic philosophy and adult education. But there are also methods developed more recently, some even not yet published.

(My paper will also include a discussion of moral problems concerning metic intelligence and its training).

References:
[1] Marcel Détienne / Jean-Pierre Vernant: Les ruses de l’intelligence. La mètis des Grecs, Paris: Flammarion 1974 (reprinted 2009 )
[2] Pietro Pucci (2004), Metis, in Barbara Cassin (Ed.) Vocabulaire européen des philosophies. Dictionnaire des intraduisibles, (784-785), Paris: Editions Seuil Dictionnaires Le Robert

Keywords:

Practical intelligence, wisdom, cunning, kairos, cre-activity.