Introduction. Naturalistic views of intelligence as a natural property that facilitates survival and adaptation have become widespread in modern science. These views are inspired by both philosophical concepts and the progress of empirical research. A new wave of naturalism problematizes the ontological status of human intelligence, renewing the need to understand the relationship between the natural and the sociocultural, reopening the question of whether intelligence is a unique human characteristic or is common to other forms of life. The purpose of the study is to comprehensively analyze contemporary naturalistic approaches to understanding intelligence and to substantiate the need for its reanthropologization by affirming its integral social essence. Methods. The author uses conceptual approaches such as genealogical, critical, systemic, and dialectical ones. The author also makes use of such methods as content analysis, methods of integrating the logical and historical, and critical reflection. Scientific novelty of the study. Naturalism does not negate society and culture. Rather, it seeks to represent them as consequences of human nature. In its narrow versions, intelligence is a function of genes, the brain, or hypostatized human properties (e.g., language). Broader versions interpret intelligence as a derivative of human existence as a whole, which, however, is reduced to a system of adaptations. Intelligence can only be fully explained on the basis of understanding humans as holistic, primarily social beings, possessing an emergent mode of existence. Intelligence consists of productive, generative activity and therefore cannot be reduced to adaptive logic. Results. The sociality of intelligence is integral: being an internal aspect of humanity, it absorbs the natural dimension while simultaneously transcending it. The latter retains its general essence and relative autonomy, becoming its foundation. In its vital aspect, it can be interpreted as a cognitive adaptation. However, to reveal its essence, intelligence must be incorporated into sociocultural existence, opening up to human praxis. Conclusions. Modern versions of the naturalistic understanding of intelligence retain their general reductionist stance, hypostatizing intelligence as a complex adaptation or viewing it in terms of individual human properties (language, brain activity, etc.), which erroneously separate it from its integral social essence.
