Human Intelligence and its Manifestations

Having recently started a post about the various gifts people were born with I was quite pleased to see an across the spectrum show of skills and talents. Smiling and pleased to be in the company of a host of gifted individuals I was suddenly struck down to my deservedly low position when I discovered in a different post that I am rather stupid. I felt terrible. I reread the posts and found another savant had confirmed that indeed most of the lot of us are stupid.

Dullard that I am I bumbled around the internet looking for comfort and came across something I had read years ago. There are at least six different ways that human intelligence manifests in people. I say six because the initial theorist of this notion suggests that there are perhaps nine or ten ways to accurately gage an individuals intelligence.

A man by the name of Howard Gardner began his studies of human intelligence at Harvard. I'll list his first six suggestions and then refer the interested reader to search out the man's work or simplely the concept of multiple intelligence. Believing as I do that the lot of you, in fact, possess an adequate number to these gifts so as to be able to readily locate articles pertaining to the topic.

The bare bones first six: 1) lingustic intelligence, 2) logical, mathmatical, 3) musical, 4) body kinesthetic, 4) spacial, 5) interpersonal, 6) intrapersonal. It might be interesting to know if any of you do feel you are in possession of one or combination thereof of the listed areas. I really don't believe there are as many stupid people here as some would have us believe.

 

I don't know math so I'm stupid

But can he build a guitar by hand and then play it without plans or musical schooling. Totally intuitive. But I digress......


You should also list 7) Naturalistic, and 8) Existential, because several of us fall into those categories as well.


What's number 9 ?

 

I try to consider the source before assigning value to unsolicited opinions. They say more about the person saying them than they do about their targets anyway.

Intelligence will vary from person to person... sometimes it'll vary in the same person from situation to situation. Anger consumes precious iq points with me and believe me I can't spare very many.

the soul may well be hampered by the biological machinery it occupies. Brilliant minds that are not yet tempered with a measure of empathy can spew some very startling ignorance. When I see or hear that I try to feel compassion for the person- in part to keep myself from becoming poisoned by anger. I've already shared what that does to me!

 

As I recall Existential is in fact number 9 and spiritual is 8. Something along that order because he had not built a strong enough case for existential but felt he had for naturalist and spiritual'

In addition to your musical intelligence I assume you also claim ligusist. Your ability to communicate comes across quite well.When I consider people using the idea of multiple types of intelligence it really frees me up in relations with others. Its great to find people whos skills compliment yours. There is often a synergistic product of the encounters. It would be fun to watch the brain patterns converge when a group of musicians really work well together.

Equally I think the idea of a think tank/brain trust pays homage to the notion of multiple intelligences. A pallet of people all with similar but varied skills sets has to be able to see resolution better than perhaps a single mind.

Einstein was a great example too. Skilled beyond perhaps only a handful of people, he was quite average in other things and recognized it in himself. It humanized him greatly, he would have been great fun to talk too.

 

I'm a math nerd and very logical though not always emotionally stable. I told my boyfriend to think of me as a bipolar vulcan. My social and linguistic skills are only just passable. I don't think of myself as an innovator at all.

 

Theres really great strength in recognized skills as well as areas that aren't as strong. The definition of true humility is just that, the ablity to recognize both strengths and areas that need to grow. Thats a pretty good way to describe yourself, lets folks how to relate to you, I like it.

 

We also don't all learn best in the same ways.

Fleming's model is the one that came to my mind. It says that some of us are visual learners, some are auditory learners, and some are tactile learners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles

 

Linguistic Intelligence
Musical Intelligence
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
Spatial Intelligence
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
Interpersonal Intelligence
Intrapersonal Intelligence
Naturalist Intelligence

 

human intelligence is not entirely mythological.
it is however, somewhat under utilized.

 

Yarapario, village elder does not even begin to cover who you are. I love your insight and compassion.

Thank you for the balance that you bring.

 

I think that this is an excellent point.

I have always felt that our idea of intelligence has been rather narrow. It is a really complex subject and so I agree that there are many different ways a person can be intelligent. I also think we did this in regards to animals. We think that animals that are more like us are smarter and animals that can be easily trained are smarter, but I don't think that this really tells us their intelligence. Of course, I also think plants are intelligent and almost no one agrees with me on that

So I just wouldn't listen to people who make general claims about others when they are obviously just talking out of their ass.

Anyway, great thread!

 

Intelligence is strange.

I have a very high linguistic and existential intelligence, but I'm below average in terms of mathematical skill.

It's not as if those are useful for anything... I mean honestly, what sort of career could I get with my abilities?

Me: "Uhh, I'm not very good at anything involving numbers, but I can tell exactly where someone is from by listening to their accent, and can hypothesise about the nature of the universe for hours on end!"

Employer: "Ahh, alright. You can help the surly bearded gentleman in the back room lifting and sorting crates!"

Me: "Lifting and sorting, you say? What's the pay?"

Employer: "The lowest I'm legally obligated to give to you."


Yep. The future is bright.



I'm a realist, what else can I say?

 

i like philosophizing so besides that iam not on that list...I do play music but it hates me with a passion..I cant play at all and its been three years so yeah thats that LOL........Awesome read though

 

i'm surprised he did'nt mention emotional intelligence ,since it's one of the greatest and most useful gifts of all.

 

You could do any number of things with those skills I would think. Beyond the obvious of writing have you or would you consider becoming a therapist? Liguistic skills would include communication. The existential bit would help those pondering their plight in life. Teaching might be an option. The legal field is more about language than math. Man is a creature of language, it defines us, sets us apart from our tree bound brethern.

Hell what do you want to do, what are your dreams for yourself. I would hope you don't believe you need to be gifted in math to have a vocational future.

 

I was thinking of becoming a counselling psychologist, but that requires doing statistics classes in university, which I would be terrible at.

 

This is a huge part of the problem we have with our present educational system. They have to cram everybody into some kind of mold to break them and then spit out the pieces. In the process ruining peoples natural abilities to do amazing things.

 

i have a psychology degree and never took a statistics class...

even if you have to take a class that's not in your major skill set, as long as you can pass it the rest of your classes can raise your GPA to a respectable level. college classes these days are designed so that a chimp can pass them anyway.

 

The guys above me are right...that class is nothing to sweat. Yeah, It's hard but at least it's related to the field and you can keep your GPA up with other classes. I hated Statistics with a passion to be honest but theres no way I would let that class stand in my way. Got a B out of both stat classes and have used stats very little in all my years of practice. Go for it!