Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

"There's a book I recommend for everybody: It's Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind. It has helped me immensely." - Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power

What do we mean when we call someone smart? That they are good at math and got a high score on the SAT? That they learn languages easily? Those traits might be what comes to mind first: they are what underly psychology's classic definition of intelligence, and what we are told in school that a smart person can do. But they are not the whole story.

As Howard Gardner argues in the groundbreaking classic Frames of Mind, to limit our understanding of intelligence to "book smarts" misses much of what makes human beings amazing. Someone who plays an instrument well is exhibiting intelligence. So, too, someone who knows how to do physical comedy--is their mastery of their movements and the space around them not brilliant? And to have a profound knowledge of their own self, their relationships with others, and relationships between others, too, is to show great intelligence as well.

Gardner calls this the theory of multiple intelligences. But this isn't just a book for intellectuals who want to argue about what intelligence is, or educators debating how to teach. It is for each of us. In an era of teaching to the test, and increasingly powerful artificial intelligence, Gardner's work is a celebration of all the ways there are to be human.

Author: Howard Gardner
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 03/29/2011
Pages: 528
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.90w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9780465024339
Audience: Young Adult

About the Author
Howard Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero. The author of more than twenty books and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and twenty-one honorary degrees, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.