Howard Gardner : the myth of Multiple Intelligences

How does one use the criteria to pick out intelligences? Gardner makes it clear that
not all have to be satisfied (Gardner, 1983:62). Frames of Mind states that there is no
'algorithm for the selection of an intelligence, such that any trained researcher could
determine whether a candidate intelligence met the appropriate criteria’ (p.63). Rather,
Gardner goes on:

it must be admitted that the selection (or rejection) of a candidate intelligence is
reminiscent more of an artistic judgment than of a scientific assessment. (p.63)

The identification of intelligences appears, then to be a subjective matter. It is worth
dwelling on this point. Gardner sees it as a special virtue of his theory that it is
scientifically based. He writes

There have, of course, been many efforts to nominate and detail essential
intelligences, ranging from the medieval trivium and quadrivium to .. .the
philosopher Paul Hirst’s list of seven forms of knowledge..... The very

difficulty with these lists, however, is that they are a priori .. What I am
calling for are sets of intelligences which meet certain biological and
psychological specifications. In the end, the search for an empirically grounded
set of faculties may fail; and then we may have to rely once more on a priori
schemes, such as Hirst’s. .. (1983: 61-2).

In saying that selecting intelligences is more like making an artistic judgment than a
scientific assessment, Gardner thus seems to be contradicting himself. The non-
empirical nature of his theory has also been shown above. We have seen how the „first
cut’ selection of the intelligences is not based on empirical investigation of what
different societies have held to be valuable; and that the „criteria’ depend on theories
in psychology and aesthetics which themselves are not empirically founded.

Why these criteria?

A further - and surely fundamental - question is: how does Gardner justify using the
particular criteria he lists to pick out intelligences?

I have not been able to find any answer in his writings.

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