Howard Gardner : the myth of Multiple Intelligences



aptitudes, methods of learning and teaching, and curriculum content. If the argument
of this essay is correct, all this has been built on flaky theory.

[a] Gardner holds that while nearly all children possess all the intelligences to some
degree, some of them have particular aptitudes in one or more of them. „My own
belief is that one could assess an individual’s intellectual potentials quite early in life,
perhaps even in infancy’ (1983:385)

It is not surprising that ideas like these have - not intentionally - encouraged
educational policies and practices to do with selection, specialisation,
individualisation of learning, and assessment. But if the intelligences are not part of
human nature but wobbly constructions on the part of their author, educators should
treat them with caution.

[b] One reason why MI theory has been so influential may be its basis in supposedly
discrete forms of intellectual activity. With some exceptions, the areas it covers are
close to those in a traditional so-called „liberal education’ based mainly on initiation
into all the main areas of knowledge, to be pursued largely for their own sake. The
addition of naturalist intelligence and (possibly) existential intelligence have made the
fit even closer, seeing the affinities of these areas with biology and with work of a
philosophical/religious sort.

Gardner’s writings elsewhere on what the content of education should be show that
the type of schooling he favors is in the „liberal education’ tradition.

Education in our time should provide the basis for enhanced understanding of
our several worlds - the physical world, the biological world, the world of
human beings, the world of human artifacts, and the world of the self.
(1999b:158)

He also thinks this understanding should be largely for intrinsic ends. „I favor .. .the
pursuit of knowledge for its own sake over the obeisance to utility’ (1999b:39).

It is not surprising that Gardner’s curricular ideas dovetail with his ideas of the
intelligences, even if this was not his original intention. For the „liberal education’
tradition and MI theory share the same starting point. They both assume the
importance in human life of intellectual activities pursued largely for their own sake.

It is not surprising that educators reacting against recent utilitarian tendencies in

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