Michael Smith wrote:
> The pseudo-scientific sense of "intelligence" as a generalized,
> fixed, quantifiable physical property of individual nervous
> systems is so modern it's not even in the OED. I don't know whether
> it was Spearman or his idol Galton who first came up with it, though
> I bet it's the former. Galton used old-fashioned terms like
> "genius".
It was Alfred Binet who came up with the first IQ test, actually
quantifying intelligence. As Steven J. Gould argued, he only wanted to
be able to find those with extreme deficits in intelligence (kids with
"special needs"). He never meant IQ to be used the way Spearman and
his ilk used it.
> > Howard Gardner sees intelligence as "the capacity to
> > solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more
> > cultural setting." Using this definition and empirical work, he came
> > out with seven different kinds of intelligence:
>
> Seven is better than one. And ten thousand, or a million, would be
> better yet. Hockey intelligence. Poker intelligence. Then we
> could just replace 'intelligence' with 'good at' and have
> done with the whole bogus concept.
There are limits to the number of intelligences. Quote from the
web-site I used before:
Gardner > reviewed the literature using eight criteria or 'signs' of
an intelligence:
Potential isolation by brain damage.
The existence of idiots savants, prodigies and other exceptional
individuals.
An identifiable core operation or set of operations.
A distinctive development history, along with a definable set of
'end-state' performances.
An evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility.
Support from experimental psychological tasks.
Support from psychometric findings.
Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system.
Candidates for the title 'an intelligence' had to satisfy a range of
these criteria and must include, as a prerequisite, the ability to
resolve 'genuine problems of difficulties' within certain cultural
settings. Making judgments about this was, however, 'reminiscent more
of an artistic judgment than of a scientific assessment'. Howard
Gardner initially formulated a list of seven intelligences. [But] His
listing was provisional. <
I don't see any need for having a million different kinds of
intelligence (or "better ats"). If one is teaching, it's good to have
some guidance for the different dimensions of human skills.
--
Jim Devine / "The trick for radicals has been and will be to make of
earth a heaven, but without blind faith." -- Mike Yates.
