Choose, you must

[Mitera Nikkou]

The choice doesn't make it exclusive. Each one is sure to demonstrate intelligence to some degree or another. What you're after is which one you think demonstrates it best.

[Stellar]

To my knowledge intelligence is understanding, which made the decision easy for me =p

[Christina Anikari]

To be honest i think this is a false dichotomy. Without knowledge you cannot understand since you have nothing to base your understanding on. On the very basic level then if you don't know that water is necessary to survive you cannot understand why water matters so much to people. On the other hand without understanding knowledge will be divided into scattered factoids that you cannot relate or use in any meaningful sense. Ultimately knowledge and understanding are just the same thing, artificially divided.

[Mitera Nikkou]

Knowledge and understanding are two different things. It's one thing to know something, or to be aware of something, and it's another to understand it, to grasp it. It's the difference between these two questions:

Do you know what a TV is?

Do you understand how a TV works?

With the first question, you would be able to point out a TV to someone, to identify one, and perhaps explain a bit about them. With the second question, you would be able to take it up from where the first question left off, being able to explain more, and from there possibly be able to fix or make one one's self.

Knowing and understanding is kind of like the division between the director and the laborer. The director knows what to get done, and how, while the laborer understands how to apply what needs to be done. And while there are a lot of similarities and parallels between knowing and understanding, the key difference is their effect and how they can be used.

That's why I listed them as two separate things, because they are separate. They are two different levels of information: one that picks at the surface, and the other that delves deeply. It's the question of someone knowing a little about a lot or understanding a lot about a little, and which one better displays intelligence.

[Christina Anikari]

But knowing what a TV is and understanding how it works are two different if related topics. You cannot understand how a TV works without knowing many facts about electrical currents, different chemical compounds and so on. If you don't know those things you cannot understand how the TV works, the understanding grows from the knowledge. But on the other hand if you know Ohms law but doesn't understand the significance of what it means or the interplay of the components, then you can't really be said to know it.

For that matter there is no inherent difference between knowing what a TV is and knowing how it works. It is just two different bits of knowledge, learned in fundamentally the same way. I guess that a closer example of what you mean with understanding is the mythical idiot savant who can do the most amazing things, but cannot explain what he does it just makes sense to him. However, i would argue that even such a person still has to know and understand what he is doing first, even if he is autodidact and is using terms radically different from others.

[Mitera Nikkou]

But knowing what a TV is and understanding how it works are two different if related topics.

Then... You agree with me. That's exactly what I said. Again, the question is about the usage, and which would show more intelligence. I've already said that knowledge and understanding are different levels of the same thing, but they nonetheless have their own places for application and serve better under certain circumstances from one another.

That's why I'm going to go with decisions, which is the ultimate usage of what you know and understand. It's a lot more complex in that you may be able to consider knowledge and understanding from unrelated topics to come to a decision, making it all the more complicated and, as a result, require more intelligence.

I bet no one expected a cop out answer. I decided to play around this time. ^_^

[Haylie]

I'll say decision making. Decisions ultimately make your life what it is, whether you like it or not, and if you know which choice is right, I'd say you're pretty smart.

[Mendi-chan]

I'mma gonna have to go with understanding on this one. You can have alot of common sense and make good decisions. And you can know a good deal about something and be unintelligent. But if you have an understanding of the things you know than (in my opinion) you display the greatest mental ability and intelligence.

[Christina Anikari]

But without knowledge of a topic even the most insightful person can arrive at conclusions that are spectacularly wrong. Just look at 18th century scientific ideas for examples.

[Lanzerus]

i think understanding is the best, because you can learn anything but if you don't understand it how are you going to intelligently apply it to real life?

further more if you can't understand what other people are feeling/ saying you get into miscommunication and other issues causing fights and otherwise discomfort.

[Mitera Nikkou]

Christina:

It's called learning. We start with a flat world and eventually discover a round one, much like how the Earth started at the center of the universe/solar system before the discovery of the Sun's true location. Progress is a good indication of intelligence. ;/

A decision draws from both knowledge and understanding, so for conclusions to be flawed then the other two would be in the exact same boat, thus rendering the argument moot.

The difference is that both knowledge and understanding are being utilized, rather than just one or the other. Essentially, one can't be insightful if they have (next to) nothing to draw upon as far as knowledge and understanding is concerned. Just banking on knowledge or understanding doesn't guarantee anything, and insight is derived from a combination of these things and more.

In the end knowledge and understanding don't amount to anything, for better or worse, until someone decides what they are going to do with it; even if it's to decide to keep something to themselves. History records not just cause and effect, but it also records, in regard to mankind, a series of decisions.

In the wise words of C3PO: "Let the cop out answer win." ;p

[Christina Anikari]

Ummm...it was exactly the contingent nature of the two and how they rely on each other that was my point Nikkou. I was trying to point out that saying that understanding was greater makes no sense because if the knowledge you base your understanding on is flawed then so will your understanding, no matter how perceptive you are.

[Mitera Nikkou]

I know, but again you were saying within the realm that I was meaning, so I thought we had another miscommunication.

[Ell]

Well, I guess I'll choose "understanding" for the purposes of the poll, but I often tend to value instinct and intuition above all else. I think the road we take, rather then the knowledge itself, is the most powerful measure of intelligence.

[Mitera Nikkou]

I think the road we take...

...Decisions?