A supplemental text for courses in cognition, educational psychology, and general psychology, this text brings together all major intelligence perspectives and provides coverage of new theories. Written in an engaging style, Intelligence uses examples from history and contemporary life and provides frequent summaries. Features: * Provides a broad definition of intelligence by bringing together all the major perspectives. * Includes full descriptions of new theories of intelligence proposed by Michael Anderson, Stephen Ceci, Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg. * Additional coverage of intelligence concerning the workplace, schooling and multi- and crosscultural perspectives.

Intelligence

Multiple PerspectivesBy Howard Gardener

Harcourt Brace College Publishers

Copyright © 1997 Howard Gardener
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780030726293

Chapter One

INTELLIGENCE
AND INDIVIDUALITY

Every society features its ideal human being. The ancient Greeksvalued the person who displayed physical agility, rational judgment,and virtuous behavior. The Romans highlighted manly courage, andfollowers of Islam prized the holy soldier. Under the influence of Confucius,Chinese populations traditionally valued the person who wasskilled in poetry, music, calligraphy, archery, and drawing. Among theKeres tribe of the Pueblo Indians today, the person who cares forothers is held in high regard.

    Over the past few centuries, particularly in Western societies, a certainideal has become pervasive: that of the intelligent person. Theexact dimensions of that ideal evolve over time and setting. In traditionalschools, the intelligent person could master classical languagesand mathematics, particularly geometry. In a business setting, the intelligentperson could anticipate commercial opportunities, take measuredrisks, build up an organization, and keep the books balancedand the stockholders satisfied. At the beginning of the twentieth century,the intelligent person was one who could be dispatched to the farcorners of an empire and who could then execute orders competently.Such notions remain important to many people.

    As the turn of this millennium approaches, however, a premium hasbeen placed on two new intellectual virtuosos: the "symbol analyst"and the "master of change." A symbol analyst can sit for hours infront of a string of numbers and words, usually displayed on a computerscreen, and readily discern meaning in this thicket of symbols.This person can then make reliable, useful projections. A master ofchange readily acquires new information, solves problems, forms"weak ties" with mobile and highly dispersed people, and adjusts easilyto changing circumstances.

    Those charged with guiding a society have always been on the outlookfor intelligent young people. Two thousand years ago, Chineseimperial officials administered challenging examinations to identifythose who could join and direct the bureaucracy. In the Middle Ages,church leaders searched for students who displayed a combination ofstudiousness, shrewdness, and devotion. In the late nineteenth century,Francis Galton, one of the founders of modern psychological measurement,thought that intelligence ran in families, and so he looked forintelligence in the offspring of those who occupied leading positions inBritish society.

    Galton did not stop with hereditary lineages, however. He alsobelieved that intelligence could be measured more directly. Beginningaround 1870, he began to devise more formal tests of intelligence, onesconsistent with the emerging view of the human mind as subject tomeasurement and experimentation. Galton thought that more intelligentpersons would exhibit greater sensory acuity, and so the first formalmeasures of intelligence probed the ways in which individualsdistinguished among sounds of different loudness, lights of differentbrightness, and objects of different weight. As it turned out, Galton(who thought himself very intelligent) bet on indices of intelligencethat proved unrevealing for his purposes. But in his wager on thepossibility of measuring intelligence, he was proved correct.

    Since Galton's time, countless people have avidly pursued the bestways of defining, measuring, and nurturing intelligence. Intelligencetests represent but the tip of the cognitive iceberg. In the United States,tests such as the Scholastic Assessment Test, the Miller Analogies Test,and the various primary, secondary, graduate, and professional examinationsare all based on technology originally developed to test intelligence.Even assessments that are deliberately focused on measuringachievement (as opposed to "aptitude" or "potential for achievement")often strongly resemble traditional tests of intelligence. Similartesting trends have occurred in many other nations as well. It is likelythat efforts to measure intelligence will continue and, indeed, becomemore widespread in the future. Certainly, the prospect of devisingrobust measures of a highly valued human trait is attractive, for example,for those faced with decisions about educational placement oremployment. And the press to determine who is intelligent and to doso at the earliest possible age is hardly going to disappear.

    Despite the strong possibility that intelligence testing will remainwith us indefinitely, this book is based on a different premise, namely,that intelligence is too important to be left to the intelligence testers.Just in the past half century, our understanding of the human mindand the human brain has been fundamentally altered. For example, wenow understand that the human mind, reflecting the structure of thebrain, is composed of many separate modules or faculties. At the sametime, in the light of scientific and technological changes, the needs anddesires of cultures all over the world have undergone equally dramaticshifts. We are faced with a stark choice: either to continue with thetraditional views of intelligence and how it should be measured or tocome up with a different, and better, way of conceptualizing thehuman intellect. In this book, I adopt the latter tack. I present evidencethat human beings possess a range of capacities and potentials—multipleintelligences—that, both individually and in consort, can be put tomany productive uses. Individuals can not only come to understandtheir multiple intelligences but also deploy them in maximally flexibleand productive ways within the human roles that various societieshave created. Multiple intelligences can be mobilized at school, athome, at work, or on the street—that is, throughout the various institutionsof a society.

    But the task for the new millennium is not merely to hone our variousintelligences and use them properly. We must figure out how intelligenceand morality can work together to create a world in which agreat variety of people will want to live. After all, a society led by"smart" people still might blow up itself or the rest of the world.Intelligence is valuable but, as Ralph Waldo Emerson famously remarked,"Character is more important than intellect." That insight applies atboth the individual and the societal levels.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

    In Chapter 2, I describe the traditional scientific view of intelligence.I introduce my own view—the theory of multiple intelligences—inChapter 3. While this theory was developed nearly two decades ago, ithas not remained static. Thus, in Chapters 4 and 5, I consider severalnew candidate intelligences, including naturalist, spiritual, existential,and moral ones. In Chapter 6, I address some of the questions and criticismsthat have arisen about the theory and I dispel some of the moreprominent myths. I treat other controversial issues in Chapter 7. And Iexplore in Chapter 8 the relationships among intelligence, creativity,and leadership.

    The next three chapters focus on ways in which the theory ofmultiple intelligences can be applied. Chapters 9 and 10 are devoted to adiscussion of the theory in scholastic settings, and...