Thursday, June 29, 2017

Multiple Intelligences - New Horizons, by Howard Gardner


This is the kind of thing I ponder all the time, so I really enjoyed reading this book.

Gardner initially postulated multiple, distinct intelligences.  These are:

  1. Musical
  2. Bodily - Kinesthetic
  3. Logical - Mathematical
  4. Linguistic
  5. Spatial
  6. Interpersonal
  7. Intrapersonal 

He later added Naturalistic intelligence, but decided against adding Humor, Cooking, Sexual, and Spiritual intelligences, noting that they did not meet his eight criteria for establishing a category of intelligence.

My observation of people supports Gardner's theory - I've seen myriads of different combinations, from some who have great logical intelligence but very little interpersonal intelligence, or lots of interpersonal but very little intrapersonal, etc.  I also get a little bit of sense that there is an overarching well rounded intelligence that some people have, while others have very little developed intelligence in any category.

He talks about how his theory has been used in education, his initial resistance towards getting into that field, and ultimately how he felt a responsibility to lecture in the field of education.

I stopped reading the book here because I'm not that interested in how this theory impacts the educational field.  I think I'd rather read more about the theory itself.  I'm also now prompted to read about emotional intelligence, which Gardner doesn't describe in his theory.


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