- and indeed as „the medieval trivium and quadrivium’ (ibid.), can they still be
equated with abilities or talents? From the former point of view, they come out as
ways of categorizing the realm of intellectual phenomena; from the latter, as ways of
categorizing individuals’ intellectual competences. The first classification is extra-
individual: it is of epistemological phenomena in the social world. The second is intra-
individual - of attributes of persons.
For Gardner at this time - and indeed from early in his career - the two ways of
classifying were linked. He saw his theory as bridging the biological world of
individual nervous systems and the epistemological or anthropological world of
social forms. Symbols have a central role in this. „The domain of symbols... is ideally
suited to help span the gap ...’ (1983:300)
Outside Gardner’s theory, the two classifications can be kept apart. Paul Hirst, for
instance, saw himself as doing epistemology, not psychology. His theory is about how
knowledge is to be logically carved up, not about the kinds of intellectual abilities
belonging to individuals.
For Gardner, the two spheres are inseparably connected. This is implicit in his
developmentalism and his symbol theory: abilities unfold from seeds within the
nervous system towards mature end-states found in different intellectual activities; and
it is through the acquisition of symbols that these end-states are those of the highest
flights of creative activity. Because of this connexion, the bio-psychological study of
individuals is a key to understanding the social/epistemological world of the
intellectual disciplines; and vice-versa.
Conclusion
The requirements of the van Leer project allowed Gardner to expand from the limited
theory of artistic development on which he had previously concentrated to a fuller
account of the development of human intellectual competences as a whole. In doing
so, he was able to retain the master-ambition which had motivated his work from his
early days: the desire to link biology and anthropology, to show that they are part of
the same system.
MI Since 1983
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