Gardner

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Chapter 1:
Minds Viewed Globally: A Personal
Introduction
For several decades, as a researcher in psycholoy, I have been ponderin the hu!an
!ind" I#ve studied how the !ind develops, how it is orani$ed, what it#s li%e in its &ullest
e'panse" I#ve studied how people learn, how they create, how they lead, how they chane
the !inds o& other persons or their own !inds" For the !ost part, I#ve been content to
describe the typical operations o& the !ind(a dauntin tas% in itsel&" )ut on occasion,
I#ve also o&&ered views about how we s h o u ld use our !inds"
In F ive Minds &or the F u tur e I venture &urther" *hile !a%in no clai!s to have a crystal
ball, I concern !ysel& here with the %inds o& !inds that people will need i& they(i& w e (
are to thrive in the world durin the eras to co!e" +he larer part o& !y enterprise
re!ains descriptive(I speci&y the operations o& the !inds that we will need" )ut I cannot
hide the &act that I a! enaed as well in a ,values enterprise-: the !inds that I describe
are also the ones that I believe we shou ld develop in the &uture"
*hy the shi&t &ro! description to prescription. In the interconnected world in which
nearly all hu!an beins now live, it is not enouh to state what each individual or roup
needs to survive on its own tur&" In the lon run, it is not possible &or parts o& the world to
thrive, while others re!ain desperately poor and deeply &rustrated" /ecallin the words o&
)en0a!in Fran%lin, ,*e !ust indeed all han toether, or, !ost assuredly, we shall all
han separately"- Further, the world o& the &uture, with its ubi1uitous search enines,
robots, and
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other co!putational devices, will de!and capacities that until now have been !ere
options" +o !eet this new world on its own ter!s, we should bein to cultivate these
capacities now"
As your uide, I will be wearin a nu!ber o& hats" As a trained psycholoist, with a
bac%round in conitive and neuroscience, I will draw repeatedly on what we %now about
the operation o& the hu!an !ind &ro! a scienti&ic perspective" )ut hu!ans di&&er &ro!
other species in that we possess history as well as prehistory, hundreds and hundreds o&
diverse cultures and subcultures, and the possibility o& in&or!ed, conscious choice3 and so
I
will be drawin e1ually on history, anthropoloy, and other hu!anistic disciplines"
)ecause I a! speculatin about the directions in which our society and our planet are
headed, political and econo!ic considerations loo! lare" And, to repeat, I balance these
scholarly perspectives with a constant re!inder that a description o& !inds cannot escape
a consideration o& hu!an values"
4nouh throat-clearin" +i!e to brin on stae the &ive dr a ! a tis per s on a e o& this literary
presentation" 4ach has been i!portant historically, each &iures to be even !ore crucial
in the &uture" *ith the!, a person will be well e1uipped to deal with what is e'pected as
well as what cannot be anticipated3 without these !inds, a person will be at the !ercy o&
&orces that she or he can#t understand, let alone control" I#ll describe each !ind brie&ly3
in the course o& the boo% I#ll e'plain how it wor%s, and how it can be nurtured in learners
across the ae span"
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+he d isc ip lined ! in d has !astered at least one way o& thin%in(a distinctive !ode o&
conition that characteri$es a speci&ic scholarly discipline, a cra&t, or a pro&ession" Much
research con&ir!s that it ta%es up to ten years to !aster a discipline" +he disciplined
!ind also %nows how to wor% steadily over ti!e to i!prove s%ill and understandin(
in the vernacular, it is hihly disciplined" *ithout at least one discipline under his belt,
the individual is destined to !arch to so!eone else#s tune"
+he s yn thes i$in !in d ta%es in&or!ation &ro! disparate sources, understands and
evaluates that in&or!ation ob0ectively, and puts it toether in ways that !a%e sense to the
synthesi$er and also to other persons" Valuable in the past, the capacity to synthesi$e
beco!es ever !ore crucial as in&or!ation continues to !ount at di$$yin rates"
)uildin on discipline and synthesis, the creat in ! in d brea%s new round" It puts &orth
new ideas, poses un&a!iliar 1uestions, con0ures up &resh ways o& thin%in, arrives at
une'pected answers" 6lti!ately, these creations !ust &ind acceptance a!on
%nowledeable
consu!ers" )y virtue o& its anchorin in territory that is not yet rule- overned, the
creatin !ind see%s to re!ain at least one step ahead o& even the !ost sophisticated
co!puters and robots"
/econi$in that nowadays one can no loner re!ain within one#s shell or on one#s ho!e
territory, the resp e c t&ul ! in d notes and welco!es di&&erences a!on hu!an individuals
and roups, tries to understand these ,others-, and see%s to wor% e&&ectively with the!" In
a world where we are all interlin%ed, intolerance or disrespect is no loner a viable option"
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Proceedin on a level !ore abstract than the respect&ul !ind, the eth ical !in d ponders the
nature o& one#s wor% and the needs and desires o& the society in which one lives" +his
!ind conceptuali$es how wor% can serve purposes beyond sel&-interest and how !e!bers
o& society can wor% unsel&ishly to i!prove the lot o& all" +he ethical !ind then acts on
the basis o& these analyses"
8ne !ay reasonably as%: *hy these &ive particular !inds. Could the list be readily
chaned or e'tended. My brie& answer is this" +he &ive !inds 0ust introduced are the
%inds o& !inds that are particularly at a pre!iu! in the world o& today and will be even
!ore so to!orrow" +hey span both the conitive spectru! and the hu!an spectru!(in
that sense they are co!prehensive, lobal" *e %now so!ethin about how to cultivate
the!" 8& course, there could be other candidates" In research &or this boo%, I considered
candidates ranin &ro! the technoloical !ind to the diital !ind, the !ar%et !ind to
the de!ocratic !ind" I a! prepared to de&end !y 1uintet viorously" Indeed, that is a
chie& burden o& the rest o& this boo%"
+his !ay also be the place to &orestall an understandable con&usion" My chie& clai! to
&a!e is !y positin, so!e years ao, o& a theory o& !ultiple intelliences" Accordin to
,MI theory,- all hu!an beins posses a nu!ber o& relatively autono!ous conitive
capabilities, each o& which I desinate as separate intelliences" For various reasons
people di&&er &ro! one another in their pro&iles o& intellience, and this &act harbors
sini&icant conse1uences &or school and the wor%place"
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+he &ive !inds posited in this boo% are di&&erent &ro! the : or ; hu!an intelliences"
/ather than bein distinct co!putational capabilities, they are better thouht o& as broad
uses o& the !ind which we can cultivate at school, in pro&essions, or at the wor%place" +o
be sure, the &ive !inds !a%e use o& our several intelliences: &or e'a!ple, respect is
i!possible without the e'ercise o& interpersonal intelliences" And so, when appropriate, I
will invo%e MI theory" )ut &or the !ost part, readers are advised to thin% about those
!inds in the !anner
o& a policy !a%er, rather than a psycholoist" +hat is, !y concern is to convince you o&
the need to cultivate these !inds and illustrate the best ways to do so, rather than to
delineate speci&ic perceptual and conitive capacities that underird the !inds"
Prora!atically I see% to &ill in a rid about the 9 Minds <see Fiure 1=" >ou#ll have a
chance to evaluate !y success in Chapter ?"
+o put so!e &lesh on these bones, I will beco!e personal and say a bit about !y own
e'periences with these %inds o& !inds" I write as a scholar and author in the social
sciences and education3 as a person who has considerable e'perience in !anae!ent o& a
research roup" )ut the tas% o& cultivatin !inds oes &ar beyond the chare o& teachers
and pro&essors3 it constitutes a !a0or challene to all individuals who wor% with other
persons" And so, as I review these !inds, I will co!!ent on how they play out in other
careers, notably in business and in the pro&essions"
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AAB Ciscipline
4ven as a youn child, I loved puttin words on paper and I have continued to do so
throuhout !y li&e" As a result, I have honed s%ills o& plannin, e'ecutin, criti1uin
and teachin writin" I also wor% steadily to i!prove !y writin, thus e!bodyin the
second !eanin o& the word ,discipline-"
My &or!al discipline is psycholoy and it too% !e a decade to thin% li%e a psycholoist"
*hen I encounter a controversy about the hu!an !ind or hu!an behavior, I thin%
i!!ediately about how to study the issue e!pirically, what control roups to !arshal,
how to analy$e the data and revise !y hypotheses when necessary"
+urnin to !anae!ent, I have !any years o& e'perience supervisin tea!s o& research
assistants o& various si$es, scope, and !issions, and have the lessons and battle scars to
show &or it" My understandin has been enriched by observin success&ul and not-so-
success&ul presidents, deans, and depart!ent chairs, around the university3 addressin
and
consultin with corporations3 and, studyin leadership and ethics across the pro&essions
over the last &i&teen years" )eyond 1uestion, both !anae!ent and leadership are
disciplines( thouh they can be in&or!ed by scienti&ic studies, they are better thouht o&
as cra&ts" )y
the sa!e to%en, any pro&essional D be she a lawyer, an architect, an enineer(has to
!aster the bodies o& %nowlede and the %ey procedures that entitle her to !e!bership in
the relevant uild" And all o& us(scholars, corporate leaders, pro&essionals(!ust
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continually hone our s%ills"
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AABEyn the s is
As a student I en0oyed readin disparate te'ts and learnin &ro! distinuished and
distinctive lecturers3 I then atte!pted to !a%e sense o& these sources o& in&or!ation,
puttin the! toether in ways that were enerative, at least &or !e" In writin papers and
preparin &or tests, I drew on this increasinly well-honed s%ill o& synthesi$in" *hen I
bean to write articles and boo%s, the initial ones were chie&ly wor%s o& synthesis3
te'tboo%s in social psycholoy and develop!ental psycholoy, and, perhaps !ore
innovatively, the &irst boo%- lenth e'a!ination o& conitive science <+he M in d #s F e w
Ec ie nce: A Gis to ry o & the
Con itive /evo lution ="
*hether one is wor%in at the university, a law &ir!, or a corporation, the 0ob o& the
!anaer calls &or synthesis" +he !anaer !ust consider the 0ob to be done, the various
wor%ers on hand, their current assin!ents and s%ills, and how best to e'ecute the current
priority and !ove on to the ne't one" A ood !anaer also loo%s bac% over what has
been done in the past !onths and tries to anticipate how best to carry out &uture !issions"
As she beins to develop new visions, co!!unicate the! to associates, and conte!plate
how to reali$e these innovations, she invades the real!s o& leadership and creativity" And
o& course, synthesi$in the current state o& %nowlede, incorporatin new &indins, and
delineatin new dile!!as, is part-and-parcel o& the wor% o& any pro&essional who wishes
to re!ain current with her cra&t"
AA BCreatin
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In !y scholarly career, a turnin point was !y publication in 1;:5 o& F ra ! e s o& M ind:
+he +heory o& Multi p le Intellience s " At the ti!e I thouht o& this wor% as a synthesis o&
conition &ro! !any disciplinary perspectives" In retrospect I have co!e to understand
that F ra ! es o& Mi n d di&&ered &ro! !y earlier boo%s" I was directly challenin the
consensual view o& intellience and puttin &orth !y own iconoclastic notions which were
ripe, in turn, &or viorous criti1ues" Eince then, !y scholarly wor% is better described as a
series o& atte!pts to brea% new round(e&&orts at creatin in the areas o& creativity,
leadership, and ethics(than as syntheses o& already e'istin wor%" Parenthetically, I
!iht point out that
this se1uence is unusual" In the sciences youner wor%ers are !ore li%ely to achieve
creative brea%throuhs, while older ones typically pen syntheses"
In eneral, we loo% to leaders, rather than to !anaers, &or e'a!ples o& creativity" +he
trans&or!ational leader creates a co!pellin narrative about the !issions o& her
orani$ation or polity3 e!bodies that narrative in her own li&e3 and is able, throuh
persuasion and personal e'a!ple, to chane the thouhts, &eelins, and behaviors o& those
who! she see%s
to lead"
And what o& the role o& creativity in the wor%aday li&e o& the pro&essional. Ma0or
creative brea%throuhs are relatively rare in accountin or enineerin, in law or
!edicine" Indeed, one does well to be suspicious o& clai!s that a radically new !ethod
o& accountin, bride- buildin, surery, prosecution, or eneratin enery has 0ust been
devised" Increasinly, however, rewards accrue to those who &ashion s!all but
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sini&icant chanes in pro&essional practice" I would readily apply the descriptor
Icreative# to the individual who &iures out
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how to audit boo%s in a country whose laws have been chaned and whose currency has
been revalued three ti!es in a year or the attorney who ascertains how to protect
intellectual property under conditions o& !onetary <or political or social or technoloical=
volatility"
AA B/ es p ect& u l a n d 4 th ical
As I shi&t &ocus to the last two %inds o& !inds, a di&&erent set o& analyses beco!es
appropriate" +he &irst three %inds o& !inds deal pri!arily with conitive &or!s3 the last
two deal with our relations to other hu!an beins" +he &irst <respect&ul= is !ore concrete3
the second <ethical= is !ore abstract" Also, the di&&erences across career speciali$ations
beco!e less i!portant: we are dealin with how hu!an beins(be they scientists, artists,
!anaers, leaders, cra&ts!en, or pro&essionals(thin% and act throuhout their lives" And
so, here, I shall try to spea% &or all o& us"
*ith respect to ,respect- <J=, whether I a! <or you are= writin, researchin, or !anain,
it is i!portant to avoid stereotypin or caricaturin" I !ust try to understand other persons
on their own ter!s, !a%e an i!ainative leap when necessary, see% to convey !y trust in
the!, and try so &ar as possible to !a%e co!!on cause with the! and to be worthy o&
their trust" +his stance does not !ean that I inore !y own belie&s, nor that I necessarily
accept or pardon all that I encounter" </espect does not entail a ,pass- &or terroris!=" )ut I
a!
oblied to !a%e the e&&ort, and not !erely to assu!e that what I had once believed on
the basis o& scattered i!pressions is necessarily true" Euch hu!ility !ay in turn
enender positive responses in others"
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As I use the ter!, ,ethics- also relates to other persons, but in a !ore abstract way" In
ta%in ethical stances, an individual tries to understand his or her role as a wor%er and his
or her role as a citi$en o& a reion, a nation, and the planet" In !y own case, I as%: *hat
are !y obliations as a scienti&ic researcher, a writer, a !anaer, a leader. I& I were
sittin on the other side o& the table, i& I occupied a di&&erent niche in society, what would
I have the riht to e'pect &ro! those ,others- who write, research, !anae, lead. And,
to ta%e an even wider perspective, what %ind o& a world would I li%e to live in, i&, to use
Kohn /awls# <1;?1= phrase, I were cloa%ed in a ,veil o& inorance- with respect to !y
ulti!ate position in the world. *hat is !y responsibility in brinin such a world into
bein. 4very reader should be able to pose, i& not answer, the sa!e set o& 1uestions with
respect to his or her occupational and civic niche"
For over a decade, I have been enaed in a lare-scale study o& Iood wor%#(wor% that
is e'cellent, ethical, and enain &or the participants" In the latter part o& the boo% I draw
on those studies in !y accounts o& the respect&ul and the ethical !inds"
AAB 4ducat ion in the La r e
*hen one spea%s o& cultivatin certain %inds o& !inds, the !ost i!!ediate &ra!e o&
re&erence is that o& education" In !any ways, this &ra!e is appropriate: a&ter all,
desinated educators and licensed educational institutions bear the !ost evident burden in
the identi&ication and trainin o& youn !inds" )ut we !ust i!!ediately e'pand our
vision beyond standard educational institutions" In our cultures o& today(and o&
to!orrow( parents, peers, and !edia play roles at least as sini&icant as do authori$ed
teachers and
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&or!al schools" More and !ore parents ,ho!e school- or rely on various e'tra-
scholastic !entors or tutors" Moreover, i& any clichM o& recent years rins true, it is the
ac%nowlede!ent that education !ust be li&elon" +hose at the wor% place are chared
with selectin individuals who appear to posses the riht %inds o& %nowlede, s%ill, !inds
( in !y ter!s, they should be searchin &or individuals who possess disciplined,
synthesi$in, creatin, respect&ul, and ethical !inds" )ut, e1ually, !anaers and leaders,
directors and deans and presidents, !ust continue perennially to develop all &ive %inds o&
!inds in the!selves and(o& course(in those &or who! they bear responsibility"
And so, this boo% should be read &ro! a dual perspective" *e should be concerned
with how to nurture these !inds in the youner eneration, those who are bein
educated currently to beco!e the leaders o& to!orrow" )ut we should be e1ually
concerned with those in today#s wor%place: Gow best can we !obili$e our s%ills(
and those o& our co- wor%ers(so that all o& us will re!ain current to!orrow and the
day a&ter to!orrow.
AAB +he 8 ld a nd th e F e w in 4 du c at ion
Let !e turn now to education in the &or!al sense" For the !ost part, education has been
1uite conservative" For is this necessarily a bad thin" 4ducators have consolidated a
!assive a!ount o& practical %nowlede over the past centuries" I re!e!ber a
conversation twenty years ao with a pro&essor o& psycholoy in China" I had &elt that her
collee class, a si!ple recitation by one-student-a&ter-another o& +he Eeven Laws o&
Gu!an Me!ory, was larely a waste o& ti!e" *ith the aid o& an interpreter, we tal%ed &or
ten !inutes about the pros and cons o& di&&erent pedaoies" In the end !y Chinese
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colleaue cut o&& the
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discussion with these words: ,*e have been doin it this way &or so lon that we %no w it
is riht"-
I discern two leiti!ate reasons &or underta%in new educational practices" +he &irst
reason is that current practices are not actually wor%in" *e !iht thin%, &or e'a!ple,
that we are educatin youn persons who are literate, or i!!ersed in the arts, or capable
in scienti&ic theori$in, or tolerant o& i!!irants, or s%illed in con&lict resolution" )ut i&
evidence accrues that we are not success&ul in these pursuits, then we should consider
alterin our practicesNor our oals"
+he second reason is that conditions in the world are chanin sini&icantly" Conse1uent
upon these chanes, certain oals, capacities, and practices !iht no loner be indicated,
or !iht even co!e to be seen as counterproductive" For e'a!ple, be&ore the invention
o& the printin press, when boo%s were scarce, it was vital to cultivate a &aith&ul and
capacious verbal !e!ory" Fow that boo%s <and noteboo%-si$ed search enines= are
readily available, this oal(and the attendant !ne!onic practices(are no loner at a
pre!iu!" 8n the other hand, the ability to survey hue bodies o& in&or!ation(print and
electronic(and orani$e that in&or!ation in use&ul ways loo!s !ore i!portant than ever"
Chanin conditions !ay also call &or new educational aspirations: &or e'a!ple, when no
roup can re!ain isolated &ro! the rest o& the world, respect &or those o& di&&erent
bac%round and appearance
beco!es vital, even essential, rather than si!ply a polite option" *hether in chare o& a
classroo! or a corporation, we need constantly to consider which !inds are crucial,
which
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to prioriti$e, and how to co!bine the! within a sinle orani$ation, not to &oret a
sinle s%ull"
At the start o& the third !illenniu!, we live at a ti!e o& vast chanes(chanes see!inly
so epochal that they !ay well dwar& those e'perienced in earlier eras" In shorthand, we
can spea% about these chanes as entailin the power o& science and technoloy and the
ine'orability o& lobali$ation <the second !eanin o& lobal in the subtitle o& this chapter="
+hese chanes call &or new educational &or!s and processes" +he !inds o& learners !ust
be &ashioned and stretched in &ive ways that have not been crucial(or not a s c rucia l(
until now" *e !ust reconi$e what is called &or in this Few *orld(even as we see each
o& these chanes in perspective and hold on to certain perennial s%ills and values that !ay
be at ris%"
AAB Ecience and +echnoloy
Modern science bean durin the 4uropean /enaissance" Consider, &irst, the
e'peri!ents and theori$in about the physical world" +he insihts into !otion and the
structure o& the universe that we associate with Galileo Galilei, and the understandins o&
liht and ravity that e!anated &ro! Isaac Fewton, created a body o& %nowlede that
continues to accu!ulate at an ever acceleratin rate" In the bioloical sciences a si!ilar
trend has occurred in the last 19H years, buildin on Charles Carwin#s &or!ulations
about evolution, and the ensuin discoveries o& Greor Mendel, Ka!es *atson, and
Francis Cric% in enetics" *hile sliht di&&erences !ay obtain in how these sciences are
practiced across
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di&&erent labs, countries, or continents, essentially there is only one !athe!atics,
one physics, one che!istry, one bioloy" <I#d li%e to add ,one psycholoy- but I#!
not as certain about that clai!="
6nli%e science, technoloy did not have to wait upon the speci&ic discoveries, concepts,
and !athe!atical e1uations o& the last &ive hundred years" Indeed, that is precisely why in
!any respects the China o& 19HH see!ed !ore advanced than its 4uropean or Middle
4astern counterparts" 8ne can &ashion per&ectly &unctional <even e'1uisite= writin
i!ple!ents, cloc%s, unpowder, co!passes, or !edical treat!ents even in the absence o&
coent
scienti&ic theories or well-controlled e'peri!ents" 8nce science has ta%en o&&, however, its
lin% to technoloy beco!es !uch tihter" It is barely conceivable that we could have
nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants, supersonic airplanes, co!puters, lasers, or a
!edley o& e&&ective !edical and surical interventions in the absence o& the sciences o& our
epoch" +hose societies that lac% science !ust either re!ain deprived o& technoloical
innovations
or si!ply copy the! &ro! societies that have developed the!"
+he undoubted hee!ony o& science and technoloy creates new de!ands" >oun people
!ust learn to thin% scienti&ically, i& they are to be able to understand and participate in the
!odern world" *ithout understandin the scienti&ic !ethod, citi$ens cannot !a%e
reasonable decisions about which !edical course to &ollow when con&ronted with a set o&
options or how to evaluate co!petin clai!s about children-rearin, psychotherapy, or
treat!ent o& the elderly" *ithout havin so!e !astery o& co!puters, citi$ens cannot
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access the in&or!ation that they need, let alone be able to use it productively, synthesi$e it
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revealinly, or challene it %nowledably" And needless to say, in the absence o& so!e
!astery o& science and technoloy, individuals can scarcely hope to contribute to the
continuin rowth o& these vital sectors" Moreover, in&or!ed opinions about
controversial issues li%e ste! cell research, nuclear power plants, enetically !odi&ied
&oods, or lobal war!in presuppose a roundin in the relevant science and technoloy"
Gavin solved !a0or !ysteries about the physical and the bioloical worlds, scientists and
technoloists have !ore recently turned their attention to the understandin o& the hu!an
!ind and brain" More %nowlede about psycholoy and neuroscience has been accrued
in the last &i&ty years than in all prior historical eras co!bined" *e now have well-
developed, e!pirically-based theories o& intellience, proble!-solvin, and creativity(
alon with the tools, so&tware, and hardware, purportedly based on these scienti&ic
advances" 4ducators, pro&essionals, !anaers and leaders in business need to be
coni$ant o& what has been established, and what !ay soon be established, about the
nature, wor%ins, potentials, and constraints o& the hu!an !ind" Currricula developed 9H
or 1HH years ao no loner su&&ice" )ut don#t toss out the e'1uisitely evolved in&ant with
the sudsy bathwater o& earlier eras" It is easy(but danerous(to conclude that all
education in the &uture should si!ply concentrate on !athe!atics, science, and
technoloy" And it is e1ually easy(and e1ually danerous(to conclude that the &orces
o& lobali$ation should chane everythin"
AAB +he Li!its o& Ecience and +echnoloy: +wo Caveats
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,4ducation is inherently and inevitably an issue o& hu!an oals and hu!an values"- I
wish that this state!ent were !ounted pro!inently above the des% o& every policy!a%er"
8ne cannot even bein to develop an educational syste! unless one has in !ind the
%nowlede and s%ills that one values, and the %ind o& individuals one hopes will e!ere at
the end o& the day" Etranely enouh, however, !any policy!a%ers act as i& the ai!s o&
education are sel&-evident3 and as a conse1uence, when pressed, these policy!a%ers o&ten
e!ere as inarticulate, contradictory, or unbelievably prosaic" Gow o&ten !y eyes have
la$ed over as
I have read vacuous procla!ations about ,usin the !ind well- or ,closin the
achieve!ent ap- or ,helpin individuals to reali$e their potential- or ,appreciatin our
cultural
heritae- or Ihavin the s%ills to co!pete-" /ecently, in spea%in to !inisters o&
education, I#ve discovered a particularly Eisyphusian oal: ,leadin the world in
international co!parisons o& test scores"- 8bviously, on this criterion, only one country
at a ti!e can succeed" +o state educational oals in this day and ae is no easy
underta%in3 indeed, one purpose o& this boo% is to posit several !ore ritty oals &or the
&uture"
A &irst caveat" Ecience can never constitute a su&&icient education" Ecience can never tell
you what to do in class or at wor%(&or two reasons" First, what you do as a teacher or
!anaer has to be deter!ined by your own value syste!(and neither science nor
technoloy have built-in value syste!s" Con&ronted with scienti&ic evidence that it is
di&&icult to raise psycho!etric intellience < IO=, one can draw two opposite conclusion: l=
Con#t bother to try3 2= Cevote all your e&&orts to tryin" Possibly you will succeed, and
1-21
perhaps &ar !ore easily than you had anticipated"
1-22
+he second caveat, related to the &irst, is that science(even with enineerin,
technoloy, and !athe!atics thrown in(is not the only, and not even the only
i!portant, area o& %nowlede <+his is a trap into which !any enthusiasts o& lobali$ation
&all" Eee the collected speeches and writins o& )ill Gates and +ho!as Fried!an, to
na!e two urus o& our ti!e=" 8ther vast areas o& understandin(the social sciences, the
hu!anities, the arts, civics, civility, ethics, health, sa&ety, trainin o& one#s body(
deserve their day in the sun,
and(e1ually(their hours in the curriculu!" )ecause o& its current societal hee!ony,
the a&ore!entioned science set threatens to s1uee$e out these other topics" 41ually
perniciously, !any individuals &eel that these other areas o& %nowlede ouht to be
approached usin the sa!e !ethods and constraints as does science" +hat this would be
an enor!ous blunder is an understate!ent: what sense could we !a%e o& the reatest
wor%s o& art or literature, or the !ost i!portant reliious or political ideas, or the !ost
endurin pu$$les about the !eanin o& li&e and death, i& we only thouht o& the! in the
!anner o& a scienti&ic study or proo&. I& all we did was to 1uanti&y. *hat political or
business leader would be credible, at a ti!e o& crisis, i& all he could do was to o&&er
scienti&ic e'planations or !athe!atical proo&s, i& he could not address the hearts o& his
audience. +he reat physicist Fiels )ohr !used on this irony:
+here is a deep truth and a shallow truth
And the purpose o& science is to eli!inate the deep truth"
At the wor%place, the sa!e caveats obtain" *hile it is obviously i!portant to !onitor
and ta%e into account scienti&ic and technoloical advances, the leader !ust have a
1-25
!uch
1-27
broader purview" Political upheavals, !irations o& population, new &or!s o& advertisin,
public relations, or persuasion, trends in reliion or philanthropy(all o& these can e'ert
i!pact on an orani$ation(be it pro&it or non-pro&it, dispensin widets or wisdo!" A
&ull li&e, no less a &ull orani$ation, harbors !ultiple disciplines" 4'cessive &ocus on
science and technoloy re!inds !e o& the !yopia associated with ostriches or Luddites"
AAB Globali$ation
Globali$ation consists o& a set o& &actors that wea%en or even eli!inate individual states, a
process so!eti!es ter!ed de-territoriali$ation" Gistorians note various periods o&
lobali$ation: in earlier eras, the land !ass con1uered &irst by Ale'ander the Great and
then, a &ew centuries later, by the /o!ans3 in !ore recent ti!es, the transcontinental
e'plorations and trades o& the 1@
th
century, the coloni$ation o& the latter 1;
th
century, are
seen as instances o& total or partial lobali$ation"
Followin two *orld *ars, and a proloned Cold *ar, we have now e!bar%ed on what
!ay be the ulti!ate, all-enco!passin episode o& lobali$ation" +he current incarnation
&eatures &our unprecedented trends: l= the !ove!ent o& capital and other !ar%et
instru!ents around the lobe, with hue a!ounts circulatin virtually instantaneously each
day3 2= the !ove!ent o& hu!an beins across borders, with well over 1HH !illion
i!!irants scattered across the world at any ti!e3 5= the !ove!ent o& all !atter o&
in&or!ation throuh cyberspace, with !eabytes o& in&or!ation o& various derees o&
reliability available to anyone with access to a co!puter3 7= the !ove!ent o& popular
culture, such as &ashion,
1-29
&oods, and !elodies, readily, even sea!lessly across borders(so that teenaers the world
over loo% increasinly si!ilar, even as the tastes, belie&s, and values o& their elders !ay
also convere <)hawati 2HH93 Fried!an, 2HH93 Euare$-8ro$co and Oin-Gilliard, 2HH7="
Feedless to add, attitudes toward lobali$ation di&&er enor!ously within and across states"
4ven the !ost vocal celebrants have been so!ewhat !uted by recent events, such as
those re&lectin another lobal pheno!enon called stateless terroris!" )ut by the sa!e
to%en, even the !ost vocal critics ta%e advantae o& the undeniable accouter!ents(
co!!unicatin by e-!ail and !obile phone, sei$in upon co!!ercial sy!bols that are
reconi$ed the world over, holdin protests in places that can be readily reached and
easily !onitored by diverse constituencies" *hile periods o& retrench!ent and poc%ets o&
isolationis! are to be e'pected, it is virtually inconceivable that the &our !a0or trends
listed above will be per!anently ste!!ed"
+he curricula o& schools the world over !ay be converin, and the rhetoric o& educators
is certainly loaded with si!ilar bu$$words <Iworld-class standards#, Iinterdisciplinary
curricula#, Ithe %nowlede econo!y#=" Fonetheless, I believe that current &or!al
education still re!ains basically a preparation &or the world o& the past, rather than a
preparation &or possible worlds o& the &uture" +o so!e e'tent, this actuality re&lects the
natural conservatis! o& educational institutions(a pheno!enon with which I e'pressed
so!e sy!pathy above" More &unda!entally, however, I believe policy!a%ers the world
over have not co!e to rips ade1uately with the !a0or &actors outlined in these paes"
1-2@
+o be speci&ic: /ather than statin our precepts e'plicitly, we continue to assu!e that
educational oals and values are sel&-evident" *e ac%nowlede the i!portance o&
science and technoloy, but do not teach scienti&ic ways o& thin%in, let alone how to
develop
individuals with the synthesi$in and creative capacities essential &or continual scienti&ic
and technoloical proress" And too o&ten, we thin% o& science as the prototype o& all
%nowlede, rather than one power&ul way o& %nowin that needs to be co!ple!ented by
artistic and hu!anistic and perhaps also spiritual stances" *e ac%nowlede the &actors o&
lobali$ation(at least when they are called to our attention(but have not &iured out
how to prepare younsters so that they can survive and thrive in a world di&&erent than
one ever %nown be&ore"
+urnin to the wor%place, we have beco!e &ar !ore aware o& the necessity o& continuin
education" Consciousness o& the &ive !inds is probably reater in !any corporations than
it is in !any school syste!s" Fonetheless, !uch o& corporate education is narrowly
&ocused on s%ills: innovation is outsourced to s%un% wor%s3 ethics is the topic o& an
occasional wor%shop" Few corporate settins e!brace a liberal arts perspective, e'cept &or
those e'ecutives with the ti!e and resources to attend a se!inar at the Aspen Institute"
*e do not
thin% deeply enouh about the hu!an 1ualities that we want to cultivate at the wor%place,
so that individuals o& diverse appearance and bac%round can interact e&&ectively with one
another" For do we ponder how to nurture wor%ers who will not si!ply pursue their sel&
interest but will reali$e the core !ission o& their callin3 and how to cultivate citi$ens who
care passionately about the society in which they live and the planet that they will pass on
1-2?
to their successors"
1-2:
I issue two(but only two(cheers &or lobali$ation" 4ven i& the &orces cited above could
be handled beninly, that does not constitute a 0usti&ication &or inorin or !ini!i$in the
nation, the reion, and the locale" *e should, &or sure, thin% lobally, but we should, &or
e1ual stron reasons, act locally, nationally, and reionally" +he individual who thin%s
only o& those across the lobe is as !yopic as the individual who thin%s only o& those
across the street or alon the border" 8ur principal interactions will continue to be with
those who live near by, even as !any o& our proble!s and opportunities will be speci&ic to
our nation or reion" As hu!an beins, we cannot a&&ord to sacri&ice the local &or the
lobal, any !ore than we can a&&ord to sacri&ice the arts and hu!anities, in our e&&orts to
re!ain current with science and technoloy"
Above I introduced the &ive %inds o& !inds that we will need to cultivate in the &uture, i&
we are to have the %inds o& !anaers, leaders, and citi$ens needed to populate our planet" I
hope to have !ade the initial case &or their i!portance" +o approach !y brie& sharply:
P Individuals without one or !ore disciplines will not be able to succeed at
any de!andin wor%place and will be restricted to !enial tas%s3
P Individuals without synthesi$in capabilities will be overwhel!ed by
in&or!ation and unable to !a%e 0udicious decisions3
P Individuals without creatin capacities will be replaced by co!puters and will
drive away those who do have the creative spar%3
1-2;
P Individuals without respect will not be worthy o& respect by others and will
poison the wor%place and the co!!ons3
P Individuals without ethics will yield a world devoid o& decent wor%ers
and responsible citi$ens: none o& us will want to live on that desolate
planet"
Fo one %nows precisely how to &ashion an education that will yield individuals who are
disciplined, synthesi$in, creative, respect&ul, and ethical" I have arued that our survival
as a planet !ay depend on the cultivation o& this pentad o& !ental dispositions" )ut I
&ir!ly believe that each hu!an &aculty should also be 0usti&ied on non-instru!ental
rounds as well" As a species, we hu!an beins have i!pressive positive potentials(and
history is replete with individuals who e'e!pli&y one or !ore o& these %inds o& !inds: the
discipline o& a Kohn Qeats or an Marie Curie3 the synthesi$in capacities o& Aristotle or
Goethe3 the creativity o& a Martha Graha! or a )ill Gates3 the respect&ul e'a!ples o&
those who sheltered Kews durin the second world war or who participated in
Co!!issions o& +ruth
and /econciliation durin the past decades3 the ethical e'a!ples o& ecoloist /achel
Carson, who alerted us to the daners o& pesticides, and o& states!an Kean Monnet, who
helped 4urope !ove &ro! bellierent to peace&ul institutions" 4ducation in the broadest
sense
should help !ore hu!an beins reali$e the !ost i!pressive &eatures o& the !ost
re!ar%able representatives o& our species"