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Jump to navigationJump to searchCreated page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame ==Origin== Latin ''perspicāc''-, ''perspicāx'' having keen or penetrating sight, discerning ( ''p...'
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==Origin==
[[Latin]] ''perspicāc''-, ''perspicāx'' having keen or penetrating [[sight]], [[discerning]] ( ''perspicere'' to see through, look closely into, discern, [[perceive]]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_century 1640]
==Definitions==
1: of acute [[mental]] [[vision]] or [[discernment]]
==Description==
'''Perspicacity''' (also called ''perspicaciousness'' and ''perspicuity'') is a penetrating [[discernment]] - a [[clarity]] of [[vision]] or [[intellect]] which provides a deep [[understanding]] and [[insight]].
In the 17th century, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes René Descartes] devised systematic rules for clear thinking in his work ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_the_Direction_of_the_Mind Regulæ ad directionem ingenii]'' (Rules for the direction of natural intelligence). In Descartes' scheme, [[intelligence]] consisted of two faculties: perspicacity, which provided an [[understanding]] or [[intuition]] of distinct detail; and sagacity, which enabled reasoning about the details in order to make [[deductions]]. Rule 9 was ''De Perspicacitate Intuitionis'' (On the Perspicacity of Intuition). He summarised the rule as
<blockquote>Oportet ingenii aciem ad res minimas et maxime faciles totam convertere, atque in illis diutius immorari, donec assuescamus veritatem distincte et perspicue intueri.</blockquote>
<blockquote>We should totally focus the vision of the natural intelligence on the smallest and easiest things, and we should dwell on them for a long time, so long, until we have become accustomed to intuiting the truth distinctly and perspicuously.</blockquote>
In his [[study]] of the elements of [[wisdom]], the modern psychometrician [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sternberg Robert Sternberg] identified perspicacity as one of its six components or [[dimensions]]; the other five being [[reasoning]], sagacity, [[learning]], [[judgement]] and the expeditious use of [[information]]. In his [[analysis]], perspicacity was described as
<blockquote>...has [[intuition]]; can offer solutions that are on the side of right and [[truth]]; is able to see through things — read between the lines; has the [[ability]] to [[understand]] and [[interpret]] his or her environment.</blockquote>
In an article dated October 7, 1966, the journal [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_(journal) Science] discussed NASA scientist-astronaut program recruitment [[efforts]]:
<blockquote>To quote an Academy brochure, the [[quality]] most needed by a scientist-astronaut is "perspicacity." He must, the brochure says, be able to quickly pick out, from among the thousands of [[things]] he sees, those that are significant, and to [[synthesize]] [[observations]] and develop and test working [[hypotheses]].</blockquote>
Being perspicacious about other people, rather than having false [[illusions]], is a sign of good mental [[health]]. The quality is needed in [[psychotherapists]] who engage in person-to-person [[dialogue]] and [[counseling]] of the mentally ill.
The artist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte René Magritte] illustrated the [[quality]] in his 1936 painting Perspicacity. The picture shows an artist at work who [[studies]] his subject intently: it is an egg. But the painting which he is creating is not of an egg; it is an adult bird in flight.
[[Category: Psychology]]
==Origin==
[[Latin]] ''perspicāc''-, ''perspicāx'' having keen or penetrating [[sight]], [[discerning]] ( ''perspicere'' to see through, look closely into, discern, [[perceive]]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_century 1640]
==Definitions==
1: of acute [[mental]] [[vision]] or [[discernment]]
==Description==
'''Perspicacity''' (also called ''perspicaciousness'' and ''perspicuity'') is a penetrating [[discernment]] - a [[clarity]] of [[vision]] or [[intellect]] which provides a deep [[understanding]] and [[insight]].
In the 17th century, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes René Descartes] devised systematic rules for clear thinking in his work ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_the_Direction_of_the_Mind Regulæ ad directionem ingenii]'' (Rules for the direction of natural intelligence). In Descartes' scheme, [[intelligence]] consisted of two faculties: perspicacity, which provided an [[understanding]] or [[intuition]] of distinct detail; and sagacity, which enabled reasoning about the details in order to make [[deductions]]. Rule 9 was ''De Perspicacitate Intuitionis'' (On the Perspicacity of Intuition). He summarised the rule as
<blockquote>Oportet ingenii aciem ad res minimas et maxime faciles totam convertere, atque in illis diutius immorari, donec assuescamus veritatem distincte et perspicue intueri.</blockquote>
<blockquote>We should totally focus the vision of the natural intelligence on the smallest and easiest things, and we should dwell on them for a long time, so long, until we have become accustomed to intuiting the truth distinctly and perspicuously.</blockquote>
In his [[study]] of the elements of [[wisdom]], the modern psychometrician [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sternberg Robert Sternberg] identified perspicacity as one of its six components or [[dimensions]]; the other five being [[reasoning]], sagacity, [[learning]], [[judgement]] and the expeditious use of [[information]]. In his [[analysis]], perspicacity was described as
<blockquote>...has [[intuition]]; can offer solutions that are on the side of right and [[truth]]; is able to see through things — read between the lines; has the [[ability]] to [[understand]] and [[interpret]] his or her environment.</blockquote>
In an article dated October 7, 1966, the journal [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_(journal) Science] discussed NASA scientist-astronaut program recruitment [[efforts]]:
<blockquote>To quote an Academy brochure, the [[quality]] most needed by a scientist-astronaut is "perspicacity." He must, the brochure says, be able to quickly pick out, from among the thousands of [[things]] he sees, those that are significant, and to [[synthesize]] [[observations]] and develop and test working [[hypotheses]].</blockquote>
Being perspicacious about other people, rather than having false [[illusions]], is a sign of good mental [[health]]. The quality is needed in [[psychotherapists]] who engage in person-to-person [[dialogue]] and [[counseling]] of the mentally ill.
The artist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte René Magritte] illustrated the [[quality]] in his 1936 painting Perspicacity. The picture shows an artist at work who [[studies]] his subject intently: it is an egg. But the painting which he is creating is not of an egg; it is an adult bird in flight.
[[Category: Psychology]]
