The Limits of Consilience: A Reaction to Françoys Gagné's “My Convictions about the Nature of Abilities, Gifts, and Talents”

Abstract

In this response to Professor Françoys Gagné's challenging paper, I take issue with his distinction between natural abilities and systematically developed abilities–and thus his distinction between giftedness and talent–arguing that the distinction lacks meaningfulness and utility. I then question the practicability and the value of the larger enterprise of attempting to reach consensus on the meaning of these elusive concepts. I argue that not only is our lack of agreement as to the meanings of the terms giftedness and talent inevitable but that it is conceivably a good that in no way poses a practical limitation on our practice.