Spring 2014 Wisdom Course Lecture Notes A

Return to Wisdom

JAN 14

Course Introduction

1. Call roll. Brief student introductions.

2. Introduction to the course topic.

3. Introduction to the course websites.

4. Turning Point clicker technology.

5. Ereserves, Grading Schemes, and the Prep Cycle.

JAN 16

Themes in today's readings

• note definitions of wisdom and lists of wisdom attributes
• some initial reference points in Greek thought on wisdom.

Hall, Chapter 1 "What is Wisdom?"

• opening story, point about wisdom
• Perceptions of wise individuals and gender. (Someone look up Lysistrata for next time)
• his approach, p. 16 (using science) - definition of wisdom, bot. 17 --
• Hall's initial theoretical definition: bot 18 -- read & note

Robinson, "Wisdom Through the Ages"

This one of several mini-histories of wisdom we'll look at.

Socrates

• note on Homeric concept --- p. 13-14: Greek concept of soul/nous
• distinctions among sophia, phronesis, episteme
• Socratic "anti-body" view of wisdom

Aristotle

• Aristotle's concept of wisdom. idion ergon (task, mission, purpose)/ prohaireseis(deliberated choices) / hexeis (dispositions). (Put it together.)
• Knowing Final Causes. (possible small group discussion)
• Practical wisdom (phronesis), theoretical (scientific) knowledge (theoretikes), practical knowledge (ergon)

Epicureans & Stoics (Helenist Schools)

• comment on his gloss of stoics.

Christian Wisdom

• the difference that revelation makes to your model of wisdom. (cf. back to Hellenists) sophia vs. pistis theon
• Christian split (influences): Aristotelean vs. Platonic
• Aquinas: quote on p. 20 -- "perspective shift" is a common theme in wisdom accounts

Post-classical world (Renaissance, scientific rev and beyond)

• Scientific revolution as challenge to ancient conceptions of wisdom and divinity

JAN 21

Some housekeeping: note study questions (limit Robinson);

Hall, Wisdom, Ch. 2: Socrates + Axial Age

• Image of Socrates: Does his example support the claim that wisdom is real?
• Axial Age Hypothesis
• Dist. characteristics, p. 24.

Greek

• Contrast between Pericles and Socrates, p. 28

• both selling "deliberation" as a virtue
• Socrates' treatment of emotion unique

Primary class interest here is to get contrasting images of wisdom across the so-called Axial Age.

Confucius

• 6th century BC China
• characteristics of confucian ideas of wisdom

Buddha

• 563-483bc, India
• "awakening" vs. "wisdom"

Osbeck and Robinson, Philosophical Wisdom

• Question of "Where did the problem of wisdom go?"; possible effect of science; scepticism;
• Note on its revival.
• Necessary Presuppositions of wisdom (?): truth not mere conventional; health and sickness are real.
• On Homeric concept: details.
• On Aristotle: read p. 67 three times slowly
• Importance of quality of deliberation. Matters variable (How does this help you distinguish forms of wisdom here?) Note that different sorts of intelligence are being discussed.
• The invariant, role of demonstration in.
• What could intuition and insight be?

JAN 23

Labouvie-Vief on Plato

1990 "Wisdom As Intergrated Thought: Historical and Developmental Perspectives"

This article applies a psychological analysis of Platonic thought on wisdom, so it makes a nice transition to the pscyh literature.

Theory and Critique

• Thesis: The project of "wisdom" in the West led to an undue split between the rational and the nonrational. 53
• Piaget: inner/outer processes. assimilation/accomodation (Other theorists "oral mode/written mode"), mythos/logos.
• Good quote: "Prior to Plato, many philosophers already asked such questions as: What is the nature of reality? or What is our nature, and what is our place in the order of things? To the pre-Platonic philosophers, answers to these questions still were permeated with mythic and highly concrete images. Reality still presented itself as an organismic happening integrated with the world of nature. Like nature, reality was animated with life and subject to growth and decay (see Collingwood, 1945; Frankfort & Frankfort, 1946). Mythic and organic conceptions of the universe were mixed with the beginning of systematic and abstracting thought. 57
• Homeric heroes not self-reflective, embedded in action, see themselves moved by divine forces.
• Platonic thought represents a huge break from this. "It. For Plato, the adult is no longer embeddedin a concrete, organic, and participatory reality." 59

Remedy

• "reintegrated thought," seeing goal of adulthood in term of balancing of logos and mythos, 67. embodied thinking 72.

Clayton and Birren

1978 -- Wisdom across the Life Span

• Note from historical treatment: East/West difference.
• Multidimensional Scaling Study: Note method and results. Cognitive, affective, and reflective qualities. Topic of discussion: Are older people wiser?
• Erikson's and Kohlberg's view of wisdom as a life stage achievement 121. Quote 122.
• Note diverse other perspectives for theorizing wisdom.