Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

“Most lay and scholarly writings about intelligence focus on a combination of linguistic and logical intelligences—the particular intellectual strengths, I often maintain, of a law professor, and the territory spanned by most intelligence tests.”

This quote defines Gardner’s main conflict with established understandings of intelligence and lays the groundwork for his exploration of The Model of Intelligence as Multifaceted Rather Than Singular. He states that the rigidly defined conception of intelligence promoted by Western psychological experimentation and research falls far short of capturing the true, multifaceted nature of human intelligence, which is expressed by every human in every human endeavor to some degree.

“It is fundamentally misleading to think about a single mind, a single intelligence, a single problem-solving capacity.”

This quote leads into Gardner’s fundamental break with intelligence research orthodoxy. He believes that intelligence is not a singular entity but something that comprises several different biological mechanisms in the brain, which interact with cultural prompts to produce intelligence. In his rejection of the “single mind,” he therefore stresses not only the multiplicity of intelligence (a point his repetition underscores) but also its social nature.

“Cast your mind widely about the world and think of all the roles or ‘end states’—vocational and avocational—that have been prized by cultures during various eras. Consider, for example, hunters, fishermen, farmers, shamans, religious leaders, psychiatrists, military leaders, civil leaders, athletes, artists, musicians, poets, parents, and scientists.”

This quote emphasizes Gardner’s position that intelligence is present in every human and in every culture. The vastly different skills required by the different professions, both historical and contemporary, that he lists are all expressions of intelligence, and culture plays a huge role in defining intelligence through whatever it values or needs at that time.