Howard Gardner of Harvard University is famous among educators for his theory that all human beings have seven distinct intelligences. But as Gardner explained to his General Session audience at ASCD's 52nd Annual Conference, the multiple intelligences now number eight and a half.
"I left my theory pretty much alone for a decade, but then I began to think about whether there might be additional intelligences," Gardner said. "Contrary to what some people might think, I don't wake up one morning and say, Hey, there's a humor intelligence or a cooking intelligence or a sexual intelligence.' I have a set of criteria, and I don't admit something as an intelligence unless it satisfies those criteria."
The eighth intelligence to meet Gardner's test is the naturalist intelligence. "That's an intelligence which allows human beings to recognize and discriminate among flora and fauna, and other things in the world like clouds and rocks," he explained. "It's built into our nervous system. We all can do it."
Every society has specialists who focus on the natural world, Gardner noted. "Darwin epitomizes the naturalist intelligence," he said. "I had no way of explaining what Darwin's genius was until I began to work on the naturalist intelligence."
Gardner speculated that there might also be an "existential" intelligence, by which he means "the human proclivity to ask very fundamental questions: Who are we? Why are we here? Why do we die? Every five-year-old asks these questions in every society."
Throughout history, human beings have tried to answer existential questions through art, mythology, philosophy, and science, Gardner said. "Leaders traffic in existential intelligence," he added, because they help give us a sense of identity and purpose.
Why does Gardner speak of eight and a half intelligences rather than nine? "Because of my criteria," he explained. "As far as I know, there's no convincing brain evidence [showing that] parts of the nervous system are dedicated to existential issues." (Such evidence does exist for the naturalist intelligence.) "So I'm basically in a holding pattern to see whether existential intelligence really qualifies on the criteria that I've laid out."