THE FIVE MINDS FOR THE FUTURE

“In a world where we are all interlinked, intolerance or disrespect is no longer a viable option.”

In his reading, Howard Garder wonders what kind of minds people will need if they are to thrive in the world for the following decades. The minds he describes are also the ones he believes people should develop for the future. Garder also argues that, to meet the future world (with its robots, search engines and other devices), we should work on our mere skills and cultivate these capacities now. With these minds, Garder believes that a person will be well equipped to deal with what is expected, as well as what cannot be anticipated. However, without the FIVE minds, or any of them, a person will at the mercy of forces that he or she cannot understand, and neither will they be able to obtain a sense of control. 

There are all pretty self-explanatory but here is a little summary (taken from my notes) of these ‘MINDS’

DISCIPLINED MIND : 

• Distinctive mode of cognition
• Advises to have at least one discipline : scholarly stuff, craft or profession

SYNTHESISING MIND :

• Synthesises everything – makes it easier for people
• Made me think of a weird metaphor : mum bird chewing up food for their babies and feeding them (in this case, feeding them information).
• Synthesising mind is going to be challenged (if it isn’t already) in the near future as Garder mentions “information continues to mount at dizzying rates”

CREATING MIND :

• Built on Discipline and Synthesis from its other mind pals
• Puts news ideas forth, asks herself/himself, conjures new ways of thinking.
• Always wants to be first and could be considered the avant-garde of the minds

RESPECTFUL MIND :

• Notes and welcomes differences between human individuals and groups
• Tries to understand the ‘others’
• Seeks to work effectively with them

ETHICAL MIND :

• More abstract than Respectful mind
• Ponders the nature of one’s work and the needs and desires of the society in which one lives
• Conceptualises how workers can serve purposes beyond self-interest
• Not selfish to improve the lot of all

Here are also a few ideas that I put in a little brainstorm paper sheet regarding the reading : 

THE FIVE MINDS, Maelle Raluy 2016