A typical genus poster, depicting archetypical geniuses: Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, and Leonardo da Vinci, a group representative of the motto: “a genius is someone who has mastered certain principles and ways of conducting themselves, so that they can achieve any desire they want—because there are certain laws at work which we are not aware of, yet which the genius has discovered through trial and error.” [6]

In classifications, a genius, from the Latin gignere to ‘beget’ or produce, is someone who is able to hit targets invisible to others, in whom intellect tends to predominate over will much more than the average person, wherein a strong leaning and inclination tends to exist, and often in which a polymathic nature and autodidactic traits tend to reign. [1]

“The first and last thing which is required of genius is the love of truth.”

– Johann Goethe, a last universal genius [7]

Genius IQs

See main: Genius IQs (ranking of the top 1000 geniuses)

The standard numerical value for the classification of a genius IQ is the standard Terman definition of an IQ at or above 140, as listed below, along with other noted assignment criterion proposals and definitions: [2]

IQ = 125+ Catherine Cox definition (1926)
IQ = 140+ Lewis Terman definition (c.1917)
IQ = 140+ Tony Buzan definition (1994)
IQ = 145+ Ronald Hoeflin definition (1982)
IQ = 160+ Leta Hollingworth definition (c.1930)

In terms of how these high-end IQ values have been determined, there have been two general ways to categorize so-called ‘geniuses’ in terms of IQs: one being the retrospect peer ranking method, namely assigning an IQ value to historical geniuses, in the context of the peers of that time period and prior. A meta-analysis of this sort yields the Cox-Buzan IQ anchor point geniuses.

Universal genius

See main: Universal genius; Last universal genius; Last person who knew everything

A rare few are considered as universal geniuses, being one with a universal mastery of knowledge, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the one to whom this eponym is generally assigned. The so-called "last universal genius", frequently mentioned include: Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716), and Johann Goethe (1749-1832), Goethe being the preeminent example of this group:

“Goethe comes as close to deserving the title of a universal genius as any man who has ever lived.”

“Scholars agree that Goethe was the last universal genius: practically nothing within reach of the human mind escaped his attention.”

“The middle of the eighteenth century witnessed the first powerful revolt against cultural tradition, which is marked by Rousseau. This tradition was restarted by universal genius Goethe. But it was restarted for the last time. Goethe had not been succeeded by another universal genius.”

“Since my method is juxtaposition, I delight in bringing together universal genius Goethe, with Sigmund Freud, Samuel Johnson, and Thomas Mann.”

The universal genius mindset is summed up well by Goethe who commented that “if one does not know what went on for the last three thousand years, he or she remains ignorant, merely surviving from day-to-day.” In 1832 terms this amounts to having in one's possession a personal library, actual and mental, of over 5,000 books, and having written works in the over a 50-volume set level, as was the case with Goethe.

Knowledge rift

See main: Two cultures genius

A turning pointing or rather breaking point in the so-called grasp of the universality of knowledge at the genius level can be said to have occurred or typified in the 1833 Whewell-Coleridge debate after which the term "scientist" was coined over the older term "natural philosopher". This rift is captured well in American literature scholarFrederick Burwick's 1986 discussion of this growing rift, in the framework of Goethe's Faust:

“The age of Faust [1772-1832] had been the age of the ‘Renaissance man’, a time when the possibility of a universal knowledge, mastery of the arts and sciences, still seemed to be open to the ambitious mind;thereafter the separation and dispersion of intellectual endeavors, dubbed the ‘two cultures’ by C.P. Snow,resulted; whereafter, in the decades to follow, individuals such as Thomas Young (1773-1829), Humphry Davy (1778-1829),and William Hamilton (1805-1865), could all make serious claims to humanistic breadth, if not universality, in their intellectual accomplishments; nevertheless, a rift between the arts and the sciences was evident.”

The term scientist in this period (1833) came to be defined as a student of the knowledge of the "material world", with an explicate footnote that the "moral world" was to be left to the natural philosophers and religious thinkers. This divided tension soon led to the 1874 Tyndall-Stewart-Tait debate on the question of whether religion should submit completely to the control of science.

This rift still exists in modern times, with over 72% of the lay population of the world still adhering to one variation or another of the Ra theology version of morality.

Test-determined genius IQs

See main: Terman IQ; Mega test IQ; etc.

A second, albeit less accurate, method is the IQ test method, wherein one is labeled as a ‘genius’ based on an IQ test score or group of IQ test scores. This method, however, often tends to be filled with error.

The classic example to illustrate this is the fact that French mathematician Henri Poincare took the Binet intelligence test and scored at the imbecile level (IQ=35): “Had he been judged as a child instead of the famous mathematician he was, he would have been rated by the test as an imbecile.” [5] In the realistic correct sense, Poincare is often considered as one of the greatest thinkers of history.

Another example in the inconsistencies in the IQ assignment method is the fact that Terman assigned Nicolaus Copernicus, one of the greatest geniuses of all time, with an IQ of 100 to 110.

Likewise, Richard Feynman, as a kid, according to his sister Joan, was tested with an IQ score of 123, i.e. below genius level, whereas in retrospect he is generally viewed as one of the greatest geniuses of modern times (No Ordinary Genius: the Illustrated Richard Feynman, 1996; Genius: the Life and Science of Richard Feynman, 1993).

True geniuses

See also: real genius

Noted traits of true geniuses, such as Albert Einstein or Thomas Young, are firstly the trait of tending to process knowledge at a slower rate, then as compared to the tendency to pass over and assimilate given knowledge at a high rate of speed as being assumed correct. Young comments on this in his autobiographical sketch about himself: [3]

“Though he wrote with rapidity, he read but slowly, and perhaps the whole list of the works that he studied, in the course of 50 years, does not amount to more than a thousand volumes.”

In fact, the three greatest scientific minds of all time—Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein—were all viewed as ‘dunces’ in childhood. [4]

A second trait is the initiation of a sort of unwritten combatant with the densest of works of the geniuses of the past. Young, for instance, comments on his intellectual battle with Joseph Lagrange (IQ=185) as follows: [3]

“Scientific investigations are a sort of warfare, carried on in the closet or on the couch against all one’s contemporaries and predecessors; I have often gained a single victory when I have been half asleep, but more frequently found, on being thoroughly awake, that the enemy had still the advantage of me when I thought I had him fast in a corner.”

Similarly, Einstein comments:

“I have little patience for scientists who take on a board of wood, look for its thinnest part, and drill a great number of holes when the drilling is easy.”

These examples tend to highlight the criterion for "genius" as one who drawn to problems based on their density, the higher the density or difficulty the greater the draw.

Geniuses who failed intelligence tests
French physicist Henri Poincare did so poorly on the Binet IQ that he was judged an imbecile (IQ=35); although we now rank him at IQ=195. American chemist Linus Pauling, who we now rank, in retrospect, at IQ=190, notably, failed to take some required American history courses and did not qualify for his high school diploma. The school awarded him the diploma 45 years later only after he had won two Nobel Prizes. German physicist Albert Einstein (IQ=220) attempted to skip high school by taking an entrance exam to the Swiss Polytechnic, a top technical university, but failed the art portion.

Quotes

The following are noted genius quotes:

“Sporadic great men come everywhere. But for a community to get vibrating through and through with intensely active life, many geniuses coming together and in rapid succession are required. This is why great epochs are so rare, - why the sudden bloom of a Greece, an early Rome, a Renaissance, is such a mystery. Blow must follow blow so fast that no cooling can occur in the intervals. Then the mass of the nation glows incandescent, and may continue to glow by pure inertia long after the originators of its internal movement have passed away. We often hear surprise expressed that in these high tides of human affairs not only the people should be filled with stronger life, but that individual geniuses should seem so exceptionally abundant. This mystery is just about as deep as the time-honored conundrum as to why great rivers flow by great towns. It is true that great public fermentations awaken and adopt many geniuses who in more torpid times would have had no chance to work. But over and above this there must be an exceptional concourse of genius about a time, to make the fermentation begin at all. The unlikeliness of the concourse is far greater than the unlikeliness of any particular genius; hence the rarity of these periods and the exceptional aspect which they always wear.”

— William James (IQ=?), American psychologist

See also
● Certified genius

References
1. (a) Arthur Schopenhauer: Quote: “Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
(b) Arthur Schopenhauer: Quote: “a genius is someone in whom intellect predominates over ‘will’ much more than within the average person.”
(c) wherein a strong leaning and inclination tends to exist (Merriam-Webster)
(d) Autodidactic traits tend to reign in nearly all top geniuses.
2. (a) Kerr, Barbara A. (2009). Encyclopedia of Giftedness (pg. 376). Publisher.
(b) Hollingworth, Leta S. (1942). Children Above 180 IQ: Stanford-Binet Origin and Development. Arno Press.
3. Robinson, Andrew. The Last Man Who Knew Everything (pg. 25, 183). A Plume Book.
4. Pickover, Clifford. (1998). Strange Brains and Genius—the Secret Lives of Eccentric Scientist and Madmen. New York: Quill.
5. Ochse, R. (1990). Before the Gates of Excellence: the Determinants of Creative Genius (pg. 106). CUP Archive.
6. Characteristics of a genius – MemoryMentor.com.
7. Klopsch, Louis. (1896). Many Thoughts of Many Minds (106). Publisher.

External links
● Genius – Wikipedia.