Based on Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Existential intelligence involves an individual's ability to use collective values and intuition to understand others and the world around us. People who excel in this intelligence typically are able to see the big picture and ask deep questions that transcend perception.

 

As Gardner points out: “Existential intelligence has been valued in every known human culture. Cultures devise religious, mystical, or metaphysical systems for dealing with existential issues; and in modern times or in secular settings, aesthetic, philosophical, and scientific works and systems also speak to this ensemble of human needs.”

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Existential Studies: An Introduction by Rohan Roberts is a beginner’s guide to a few of the mind-expansive topics that fall under this broad area of human knowledge.

 

The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to a range of ideas, including human origins, scientific investigation, mystical insight, the nature of reality, the meaning of truth, the purpose of life and much more.

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Written in a style that is easily accessible to young readers and old, Existential Studies is a must-read for anyone with a deep concern for ultimate issues in life and those seeking answers to the big questions.