Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences debunked the primacy of the IQ test and revolutionised how we nurture young minds.

Many scholars hope their ideas will change the world. Harvard’s Howard Gardner is that rare example who unequivocally succeeded. His Theory of Multiple Intelligences argued that the traditional definition of general intelligence was too narrow, and instead proposed that eight largely distinct forms of intelligence existed – each with their own value in human society and culture.
Hugely influential in education, psychology and the wider culture, instrumental to books as diverse as Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence and Paul Tough’s How Children Succeed, admired by thinkers and practitioners from across a wide range of disciplines and fields of endeavour, Gardner’s theory forever changed how we teach children and understand our own minds.
Now he joins How To Academy to reflect upon a life dedicated to understanding our capacities for intellectual development, from the Multiple Intelligences Theory to his continuing investigations of the human mind and how it works – particularly in ethics and the creative arts.
Fans of Daniel Kahneman, Iain McGilchrist, Oliver Sacks and Stephen Jay Gould ought not to miss this rare opportunity to hear from one of the most renowned cognitive scientists working today.
 

Praise for Howard Gardner:

“It’s been quipped that theories in psychology are true of those who propose them, and that’s certainly the case with Howard Gardner: creative, open-minded, artful, disciplined, and in command of multiple intelligences. It’s a cause for celebration that one of our most influential living psychologists has trained his insight onto his own life and work.” – Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works and Enlightenment Now
“Read this book for Gardner’s self-reflection—a mind that synthesizes ideas writing about how it came to be a mind that synthesizes ideas—and for what he has to say about the changing academic and intellectual world around him. Are we narrowing our focus when we most need open minds?” – Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age and Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
“Howard Gardner has done what scholars dream of doing but rarely accomplish: he had a powerfully original idea which he developed in a way that changed an entire field, reaching well beyond the academy and affecting our nation’s social policy and collective understanding. A Synthesizing Mind is an illuminating account of how such a breakthrough came about, a thick description of the life trajectory and the intellectual formation that led to this enduring achievement.” – Stephen Greenblatt, author of Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics