"The higher man"

[psychocat]

You'd be one of those literary critics who say that Shakespeare's genius didn't write his works, Elizabethan/Jacobean England did.

Shakespeare, Newton, Socrates, Mozart, Michelangelo...all of these people managed to transcend the intellectual or artistic limitations of the common man, rendering the great man theory worth a lot more than "bollocks." Some people are just fools, plain and simple, and to say they're equal to a creative genius is just outrageous. All men are born equal, sure...what they do after that, not so much.

You are delving into the nature versus nurture argument and to a large degree we are products of both genetics and enviroment.

Intellect is not the measure of any man and to assume a position of superiority is the domain of the inadequate.
Theory is fine but in a practical world theory isn't much use.

Nobody has yet made an attempt to answer my question of a what do you consider a failsafe method to quantify and accredit intelligence ?

I consider myself relatively intelligent , some consider me highly intelligent , others consider me a fool, we can't all be right.