Allen, I'm confused on two issues. Words, whether in common usage or
discipline usage, always have their meaning altered within the context of
changing culture and discovery of new information and new understandings.
Merely because Gardner's use of intelligence in a far broader meaning than
that limited to the traditional verbal and logical intelligences is not an
automatic reason for rejection. Any definition or understanding of
"intelligence" is not and never was fixed in stone. Were it to be than
the discipline would stagnate in a state of stasis. The more we learn the
more the meanings change. Second, I'm not sure I understand what you mean
by the distinction between your definition of intelligence and that of the
discipline. Did something ethereal and sentient called "discipline" come
up with a defiinition. Someone, another person, had to come up with a
definition of intelligence based on some kind of research. You are the
discipline. Other person are the discipline. The discipline is
non-existent without people. There is no discipline of psychology without
psychologists. In fact, the discipline per se is an invention or creation
of people such as LeMettrie dating back to the 18th century. So, it would
seem to me that psychology is the sum of individual discoveries, theories,
examinations, learnings, teachings, etc, all of which are always in a
state of flux because of the challenges, contributions, additions, and
modifications to understanding.
Gardner's definition is, if I remember correctly, as he wrote in Frames of
Mind: the ability to solve problems or create products, that are valued
in one or more cultural settings. He also added that intelligence
involves a set of skills need to solve problems as well as the potential
to gather new knowledge to offer solutions to problems. And, as you know,
went on to say that abiility is not limited to computational
and verbal, arguing that reason, intelligence, logic, knowledge are not
synonymous.
Again, understanding a lot of the objections posed by critics, I ask,
what's your definition of intelligence?
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /~\ /\ /\
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