This book proposes a new theory of intelligence. It outlines how evolutionary pressure favors the interaction between the symbolic world of language and the mental world, leading to the creation of concepts. In this book the author proposes the notion of conceptual intelligence, that is, intelligence as a result of thinking and learning through concepts. Conceptual intelligence is the essence of human intelligence: it enables us to represent reality in concepts, to think and understand in concepts, to learn more efficiently and deeply in concepts, and subsequently create the human knowledge enterprise.
This book is based on the collection of papers presented at the Eleventh World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children in Hong Kong from July 30 to August 4, 1995. This publication is truly international in the sense that not only are the authors from many different countries including United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Demark, Romania, Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Republic of South Africa, U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but also the problems and issues related to gifted and talented education are very varied and specific to their unique cultures and educational practices.