When kids do linear algebra or they rise to the level of GM in chess within the first two decades of their lives, such people are obviously geniuses. Their intelligence is undeniable.
But it’s like moral/spiritual geniuses aren’t recognized in the same way, if at all. How come their intuitive expertise isn’t recognized so easily ?
Kant? St. Augustine? Siddhartha Budda? Epictetus? Plato? Hobbes?
Ethical philosophy has had plenty of geniuses.
WTF is a “moral/spiritual genius”? That doesn’t even make sense. It sounds like a title someone just made up for themselves to feel important.
Actually, that’s a good point! I brought it up in another comment, but there are mathematical geniuses, piano geniuses, scientific genius, etc. But everybody know and can agree on what math is, what a piano is and how difficult it is to play well, what science is and the long road to mastery of a sliver of human knowledge that entails.
But not with morality.
Personally, I think you’ve suggested an answer that satisfies me: people have no idea wtf morality or spirituality are. Plato and Aristotle once may have been able to point to someone and say, “So and so is more virtuous than us!” or “The king of a foreign nation is full of vice and worth less than coward who turns to bravery.” But it’s like modern American society cannot conceive of such a concept as moral superiority.
I mean, some people can, and then often go on to be significantly worse than normal people. They are often the definition of immoral. But, as a general rule, saying that you’re morally superior to others barely makes any sense and, even if it did, would demand an impossible type of proof.
If I really think about it, someone who is considered to be an “expert” on morality would be either a philosopher or a religious leader and I doubt either of them would willing to call the other a “genius” since what is considered “morally right” can vary widely between cultures or even between individuals in the same culture as it’s a pretty personal thing.
“Spirituality” is such a nebulous term that it could mean almost literally anything and thus is not really quantifiable even in the broadest terms
Quite frankly if I met someone who claimed to be a “moral/spiritual genius” I would stay well away from them, because they’re either trying to sell you something or trick you into agreeing to something you wouldn’t otherwise agree to
Probably because morality is subjective and spirituality is a feeling?
Aren’t those subjective things? It’s easier to measure something like chess skill or whether or not someone can do complex math, but harder to quantify someone’s morality.
Art is subjective too, but artistic genius is a thing (but takes longer to develop, I guess. I can’t recall any young artistic geniuses)
Mozart was a child prodigy. He started playing piano at age 4, and at age 5 he started composing piano pieces that are still played today. He wrote a symphony at age 8 and an opera at 14. There is a legend that as a child, he heard a choir sing an Allegri piece and went home and transcribed the entire thing from memory.
I think with art it’s not so much the result but the process that make a genius. For example there is this guy that just has to look at some landscape for a minute … and then he can paint it from memory in increadible detail. That’s objectivly something that most humans just can’t do, that’s why it’s impressive.
Anyone operating at that level of morality wants nothing to do with humanity. It’s not that there aren’t any, it’s that you’ll never hear of them.