Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences proposes that intelligence isn't a single, general ability, but rather a collection of distinct, independent intelligences. He identified eight intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. 

Gardner employs a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural methodology to evaluate which human capacities fit into a comprehensive model of intelligence. Eight criteria accounting for advances in neuroscience and the influence of cultural factors are used to qualify a capacity as an intelligence. These criteria are drawn from a more extensive database than what was acceptable and available to researchers in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Evidence is gathered from a variety of disciplines including psychology, neurology, biology, sociology, and anthropology as well as the arts and humanities. If a candidate faculty meets this set of criteria reasonably well then it can qualify as an intelligence. If it does not, then it is set aside or reconceptualized.