# Quote — Howard Gardner, Intelligence Reframed

> An a priori decision to eliminate spiritual intelligence from consideration is no more justifiable than a decision to admit it by fiat or on faith. After all, once one includes the understanding of the personal realm within a study of intelligence, such human proclivities as the spiritual must legitimately be considered. There certainly are no easy grounds for a decision, but several other intelligences deal with phenomena other than sheer physical matter. If the abstract realm of mathematics constitutes a reasonable area of intelligence (and few would challenge that judgment), why not the abstract realm of the spiritual?

- Author: [Howard Gardner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-gardner.md)
- Book: [Intelligence Reframed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-gardner/intelligence-reframed.md)
- Page: 51
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Gardner#Intelligence_reframed:_Multiple_intelligences_for_the_21st_century,_1999) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-gardner/intelligence-reframed/an-a-priori