Cleverness (deinotēs)
The capacity to reach a goal efficiently, whatever it may be. It is neutral: it serves good and evil alike.
Definition
In Book VI of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle describes cleverness as a talent for means. If the goal is noble, it is praiseworthy; if the goal is bad, it becomes knavery. Practical wisdom needs cleverness but cannot be reduced to it: only wisdom knows which goals deserve pursuing.
The distinction sheds a strange light on our machines. An AI system optimises the objective it is given, better and better, without having to judge that objective. It is cleverness in its purest form. The more it grows, the more the question Aristotle put to the clever man applies to those who steer it: for the sake of what?
See also
Related notions
In the essays
In the library