In the most recent chapter of the Gould text, we read a lot about the various attempts that have been made to study an individual's general intelligence. Gould points out many flaws with the concept of general intelligence, and seems to believe more in the concept of different types and ranges of intelligence. This concept of multiple intelligences is something that has become very prevalent in our society, and is a theory that is believed to be true by a large portion of people. What is interesting about theory, is that it lacks any sort of empirical evidence. Howard Gardner, the man behind the Theory of Multiple Intelligences proposed nine different types of intelligences. These different categories of intelligence include logical-mathematical, spatial, linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intraspersonal, naturalistic and existential. While it is very possible that these different types of intelligence do exist, it would be an insult to science to accept this theory as being true without any empirical evidence to back its claims. In order to avoid making the same mistakes that were made when trying to identify a general intelligence, it is necessary to find adequate scientific proof for this theory rather than accepting it due to the credibility of the researcher or the enticing nature of the argument.
I don't know if it's possible to scientifically prove that multiple intelligences exist without making the same mistake that everyone else did in Mismeasure of Man: reifying intelligence as a measureable thing. If some kind of study were conducted to prove that people have these multiple intelligences, I think the results would just show that some people are better are certain skills than others, which is nothing new, and suggests nothing about whether those skills are fixed, fluid, learned, genetic, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emma that proving that multiple intelligences exist would be a very difficult thing to do. The whole novel has shown that the various methods used to measure intelligence have all had their flaws, and some, such as measuring skulls, have been downright silly. The different theories that have been proposed about intelligence in the past century make sense in their own ways, but since intelligence is not easily quantifiable it is impossible to disprove them.
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