The Base Assumptions for Intelligences 1. And these intelligences are valued by cultures around the world, though not always to the same degree. Though some colleagues and proponents wished Gardner had not used the term intelligence, Gardner specifically chose the word as a point of conflict. A Closer Look Gardner developed his theory from neurology, developmental and cognitive psychology, and anthropology. They also had to be exhibited in extreme form in idiot savants, prodigies, and geniuses.
Critics complain, though, that the theory is too speculative.
Gardner himself expressed some of the strongest doubts. I am painfully aware that a convincing case for each candidate intelligence remains the task of other days and other volumes. The other volumes have not appeared. Gardner says he has preferred to move on to other matters within MI and outside it. It goes against the major tenets of the philosophy, he says, to develop a battery of tests, which psychologists say would be a prerequisite to validating the theory.