J.P. Guilford’s suspicion of general intelligence resurfaced in the 1980s with Howard Gardner”s theory of multiple intelligences. Gardner says that we have various ways to tackle cognitive tasks, but ability within one is not related to any other. Each of us has an individual level of ability in each of the categories of intelligence, plus a unique combination of them. He has yet to identify eight distinct bits of intelligence, however, he has previously identified eight major types of human intelligence: linguistic; logical-mathematical; musical (proprioceptive); visual/spatial; spatial; bodily/kinesthetic; interpersonal; intrapersonal; and naturalistic. More recently, Gardner suggests the list might be expanded into four distinct types of intelligence: analytical, emotional, social, and logical. Robert Sternberg also rejects the idea of a single, general intellect, instead proposing three separate categories: analytic, synthetic, and pragmatic.
Mind and brain
In many cultures around this world, there is the view that humans have a soul that exists independently of the physical body. For Greek philosophers, the soul was also viewed as the seat of our reasoning abilities - what we would call our minds today. While Aristotle...