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The Five Minds for the Future: Navigating Complexity and Ethical Challenges

Explore Howard Gardner's concept of the Five Minds for the Future, essential for success in a rapidly changing world. From the disciplined and synthesizing minds to the creating, respectful, and ethical minds, discover how these attributes are crucial for addressing global challenges and advancing society. Learn about the evolution of disciplines, the synthesis of information, and the importance of ethical decision-making for individuals and organizations. Embrace out-of-the-box thinking, problem-centered teams, and complex projects to thrive in the digital age. Dive into the realms of knowledge, creativity, and cultural understanding to shape a better future for all.

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The Five Minds for the Future: Navigating Complexity and Ethical Challenges

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  1. Five Minds for the Future • October 11 2006 • Royal Society of the Arts • Howard Gardner

  2. The News • Five Minds do not = 8, 8 ½, or 9 intelligences

  3. Themes and Images of the Future • globalization • proliferation of knowledge • new disciplines and interdisciplinary efforts • instant communications • unprecedented competitiveness • the genetics revolution • new forms of criminal activity (cyber) • Possible/probable clash of civilizations, worlds

  4. Newly at a premium in this century • Out-of-the-box thinking • Flexibility, “just in time” responses • Going beyond the disciplines • Problem-centered teams • Complex “Hollywood style” projects and productions • Forms of nonlinear thinking • Beyond power point!

  5. The Five Minds • Disciplined • Synthesizing • Creating • Respectful • Ethical

  6. Greatest invention of last 2000 years?

  7. The Disciplined Mind • The ways of thinking in the major disciplines • Science (correlation not same as causation; matters of evidence vs faith, opinion) • History (role of human agency, no experiments possible, avoid presentism, each generation rewrites) • Mathematics (beyond formulas, engage in discovery) • The arts (beyond popular forms, formal properties, ‘reading’ ‘writing’ avoiding intentional fallacies) • Beyond the literacies and ‘about-it is” • Professions, arts, crafts involve discipline(s)

  8. But No Cigar • Artur Rubinstein’s failure to practice • Rigid applications, no stretch, no flexibility (my favorite whipping boys—evolutionary psychology and economics ueber alles– rational choice)

  9. The Synthesizing Mind

  10. The Synthesizing Mind • Scads of information, especially on the web • Largely undigested and unevaluated • The synthesizing imperative • Good, bad, and “so-so” syntheses • Psychology (my discipline) has dropped the ball

  11. Towards Synthesis • Goal (your best guess of what the final synthesis will be like) • Starting point (including earlier syntheses) • Method, strategy (epistemic frames/forms,schemas, including narratives, taxonomies, equations, maps, metaphors, images, meta-narratives, embodiments); • First rough draft • Feedback of various thoughts • Your best synthesis, pro tem-just in time

  12. No Cigar • Procrustean efforts– Efforts that attempt to do too much—or are otherwise eccentric (e.g. the textbook that should be a doorstop)

  13. The Creating Mind

  14. The Creating Mind • Mastering one or more discipline-10 year rule • Synthesizing what is known • Going beyond the known– thinking outside the box, an imperative in the computer (algorithmic) age • Good questions, new questions • Robust, iconoclastic temperament • The ultimate judgment of ‘the field’

  15. No Cigar • Phlogiston • Ether • Cold Fusion • Most best-sellers • Most biennial art shows

  16. Two additional minds– The human sphere (beyond cognitive in usual sense)

  17. The Respectful Mind • Diversity as a fact of life, at home and abroad • Beyond mere tolerance • Need to understand others– perspectives, motivation– emotional and interpersonal intelligence • Not just students alone, or students and adults; also among parents, teachers, administrators—inappropriateness of ‘corporate, top-down model’ for schools and perhaps even for corporations

  18. No Cigar • Kiss up, kick down • Bad jokes • Mere tolerance • Respect with too many conditions

  19. Promising • Commissions on Peace and Reconciliation (more than two dozen countries) • Barenboim-Said Middle Eastern orchestra • Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project (intercultural penetration, transmission, syncretism)

  20. Two Instances where (rightly or wrongly?) I changed my own mind • Scarves in France • Cartoons in Denmark • What of the recent ruckus about Mozart’s Idomeneo? Or Jack Straw’s remarks about wearing veils in Britain?

  21. The Ethical Mind

  22. Ethical Mind • Higher level of abstraction than respectful mind • Conceptualizing oneself as a (good) worker • Conceptualizing oneself as a (good) citizen • Acting appropriately in both roles

  23. Ethical (Good) Work • Excellent, expert, high quality • Ethical, socially responsible, moral • Meaningful, exciting, intrinsically motivated

  24. The Summit of Good Work

  25. The Perils of Moral Freedom • Students know the “right thing to do” • Some do it • But too many deceive others and themselves—why should I be more ethical than my peers seem to be? • Is it enough to intend to use proper means in the future?

  26. No Cigar • Compromised Work --Demise of valued institutions in journalism, law, etc; Within education, letting the tests trump everything • Bad Work (Enron/Plagiarism); Within education, giving students the answers to the test

  27. Summary and closing thought… • From a wise New Englander

  28. “Character is more important than intellect” Ralph Waldo Emerson

  29. For more information • Howardgardner.com • Goodworkproject.org • Pzweb.harvard.edu • Or……

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