Spring 2016 Wisdom Course In-Class Notes

Return to Wisdom

12/13 JAN

• First Day Notes:

• Websites in this course.
• Roster information -- fill in google form
• Main Assignments
• The Prep Cycle -- recommendations for success in the course!
• Starting the discussion about wisdom. Course questions.

• To Do list:

• Send me a brief introduction through the "Tell Me" form on the wiki. (Soon, please.)
• Login to wiki for the first time and make a brief introduction on the practice page. (3 points if done by Friday.)
• Create your peerceptiv account and pay. (5 points if done by Friday. -5 points after Monday.)
• After rosters are posted, login to courses.alfino and look around. Retrieve reading for Thursday (and read it).
• Browse wiki pages.

19/20 JAN

Hall, Chapter 1 "What is Wisdom?"

• opening story, point about wisdom: tension between "good judgment" and wanting to make it seem everything is ok.
• Thinking about wisdom focuses you on how you are leading your life. (e.g. if you read that wise people are compassionate or emotionally even-handed, you naturally ask the same of yourself).
• p. 11: some traits of wise people (knowledge, uncertainty, emotion), 12: some wise people (many at odds with their society).
• Perceptions of wise individuals and gender. Why so few women on the list. Is wisdom the same for m/f/...?
• his approach, p. 16 (using science: break it down) - definition of wisdom, bot. 17 -- list these --

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

• Socrates: There is a human version of divine wisdom.

• Socrates' definition. 24
• Does his example support the claim that wisdom is real? Consider his fate.
• Axial Age Hypothesis - 26: thesis about humans coming to accept responsibility for events. Emancipation from magical thinking.
• Greek wisdom linked to Peraclean age: 450's bc.

• Greek

• Contrast between Pericles and Socrates, p. 28

• both selling "deliberation" as a virtue
• Socrates' treatment of emotion unique -- Anti-body (flaw in classical model revealed by cont. science)

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 30-31: "gen"

• Buddha

• 563-483bc, India
• "awakening" vs. "wisdom"
• characteristics: 33-34. "mindfulness"

• Some broad historical observations on wisdom:

• What is the relationship of wisdom and religion? (Note p. 36: hypothesis on connection/disconnection)
• Over history, wisdom theorized as "received" from God, but also as product of hard nosed investigation of nature.

Robinson, "Wisdom Through the Ages"

• Socrates

• note on Homeric concept --- p. 13-14: Greek concept of soul/nous; nous found in Homeric epics along other terms for psyche, motivations, impulse (menos) and rage (lyssa)
• distinctions among sophia, phronesis, episteme
• 14: differences between wisdom and cleverness. wisdom v. intelligence. possible argument for including morality in def. of wisdom.
• Socratic "anti-body" view of wisdom (again). The soma is a sema.

• Aristotle

• Naturalist, empirical, first "biologist". Practical and this worldly in contrast to Plato.
• Aristotle's concept of wisdom. idion ergon (life lived in conformity to dictates of reason, governed by mission or purpose)/ prohaireseis(deliberated choices) / hexeis (dispositions). This structure of soul/noos is connected to happiness as "eudaimonia" a kind of fulfillment and flourishing of life that brings deep satisfaction. Very developmental thinker.
• Knowing Final Causes. Review argument on p. 17. Discuss to self-identify in relation to these claims about final cause and the contemplative life.
• Practical wisdom (phronesis), theoretical (scientific) knowledge (theoretikes), practical knowledge (ergon)

• Epicureans & Stoics (Helenist Schools)

• comment on his gloss of stoics.
• not much now since we'll study this later.

• 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; also to reality of wisdom??

Small Group Discussions

• 1st hour: We'll set up two relatively small and specific discussion questions for your group work.

• What is the significance of the "disappearance of wisdom talk" from mainstream intellectual life in the West after the scientific revolution? How does the term come up (or fail to) in your experience? With what connotations?
• Is wisdom gendered?

• 2nd hour: The "irreality" of wisdom. Let's consider the possibility (at least tonight) that wisdom is an illusion. I'll briefly make a case for that drawing on tonight's reading and then we'll work on it in group.

26/27 JAN

Philosophical Method Themes this week

• Nature of a scientific theory
• Intercultural interpretation

Philosophical Themes and Models focused on this week

• Life Span Psychology
• Aging and Wisdom
• Historical Models of wisdom: east and west

Observations of Everyday Situations Involving Wisdom

• With your group, read through these observational accounts and, assuming you agree that they are about wisdom, identify words and phrases that captures the theme or main issue at stake that involves wisdom.

• St. Isidore of Seville

• "3 things of wisdom for the week:

• 1. This morning while my roommate and i were planning out our weekend, she went to her school planner and opened it up to the following week to check and see which assignments would be due for her. This is something i didn't even think of, because I know that i don't have any papers due, I can get most of my HW done on Sunday. I thought it was wise of her to think ahead and be worry free all weekend then to not know and possibly have a big assignment she forgot about due.

• 2. While doing hw with one of my friends earlier this week, I noticed that she was typing all of her notes, from her notebook onto her laptop. I asked her why this was, and she told me that some of her professors don't allow for laptops, and she doesn't want to risk losing her notes so she types them and uploads them to her one drive. I thought this was wise, because that way she could keep them later, instead of having to save all of her old notebooks, which will inevitably get lost, or ruined.

• 3. I was out grocery shopping with my friend, and the person in front of us in line was being very rude to the check-stand worker. She just smiled and told him to have a nice day, after he berated her for being so slow because he had somewhere to be. I asked her how her day was going, and tried to be really nice to her while she checked out our items. As she was handing me my change i said something about how the man was being rude to her, and how she was nice, and she just smiled and said that she hadn't taken it personally, she knew how bad days felt. I thought this was very wise of her, because she hadn't had taken what this man was saying at face value, but she was trying to see him as a person as a whole."

• St Clare of Assisi

• My older sister went on a solo rock-climbing trip in Bishop, CA this week and, despite my family’s precautions, she decided that she did not need another companion. Wiseness or foolishness is applicable in this choice, yet the response to subsequent actions and decisions is also demonstrative of a kind of wisdom. The first day of the trip, she jumped down from a boulder and severely dislocated her ankle. She was able to get to her car with the help of two people at the same site, call me, and drive herself to the hospital. However, when I spoke to my dad about it that evening, his first words were “I told her that going on this trip was a bad idea.” It may have been a foolish decision to take this trip alone, yet I think it is interesting how people respond to others’ choices – do they contextualize and prioritize or is it more important to point out another’s foolishness? I told him that it was most important that she was safe and that pointing out a folly, in this moment, was perhaps not the most effective course of action. He agreed and we moved on to talk about logistics for getting her though surgery and back home. When I reflected on the whole situation later that night, I realized that my dad’s response more than likely came from a place of deep love and concern. Perhaps when the people that we love make choices that we deem foolish, it is hard to be pragmatic because we are, for lack of a better word, mad that they would make a choice that could take them away from us. Furthermore, I think my first instinct was to assume that my dad was being self-involved in that moment and it was more important that he was right than anything else; however, after I reflected on the situation, I realized that he was worried and maybe scared. Although the episode is not daily in nature, I think analyzing responses to choices that we deem foolish and reflecting to understand the responses of others are wise practices that can be utilized in daily interactions.

• St. Vincent Ferrer

• "1. I saw myself acting foolishly this weekend when I tried to get my homework done in front of the TV. I knew from experience that I would not be productive and instead waste my time, although I proceeded to do it anyways. After a couple hours, I noticed my foolishness and corrected my actions. I think that I had a momentary lack of wisdom but ended up finding some. Now that I am reflecting on my mistake, I think the foolishness of multitasking will resonate with me more.

• 2. I see models of wisdom in my professors. Although I don't have very strong personal relationships with them, most of my professors have influenced my sense of what is means to be wise very much. For example, I believe that wisdom goes hand in hand with respect. Professors have a lot of respect for their students even though their students may not be worthy of their respect. I see this thought my courses and I have modeled my behavior after theirs.

• 3. We talk a lot about how wisdom and experience are related. As I approach graduation, I have a lot to figure out in regards to the future. I have been looking to friends who have experienced the harsh feelings that come with the completion of college. Their compassion and confidence in me provide a sense of relief. They demonstrate wisdom because they provide advice in a unique, respectful and productive manner."

• St. Bridget

• This was a busy weekend for me. I worked a lot more than usual and I should've prepared and planned out how I was going to use my free time because of that. I knew that I had assignments due on Monday but I neglected to check the blackboard page prior to class and therefore I missed that we were supposed to submit the assignment online and also submit a hard copy in class. I missed the online submission due date and I had to explain to my professor why. I felt like it was an immature mistake and one that could've been easily avoided with some wise planning ahead of time. Luckily I learned from my mistake and I am starting to track all my assignments and I am keeping careful notes on when everything is due so that I am prepared ahead of time.

• St. John the Apostle

• This week, both my computer and phone broke at the same time. This coincidence put me in a sticky situation academically and brought to light what I think is a very important aspect of wisdom. Foresight and preparedness are characteristics of a wise person that allow them to sidestep petty obstacles and pitfalls and focus on more important issues in their lives. Luckily, I did not lose any of my saved files on my computer when it broke, but I was very close to losing everything. A wise person would have backed up their computer on an external hard drive. This situation also forced me to ask for homework extensions in my classes. With the foresight of a wise person, I would have looked at the assignments earlier and been able to get at least some of them on time. Wisdom requires balance in all parts of life to be as prepared as possible for any situation.

• St. Lucy

• "I saw wisdom in question over the weekend when some of my friends were drinking. They decided to have a designated driver to go to and from where they were going, and although they could probably walk or uber there, I believe there is wisdom in a D.D. I think it is wise because it doesn't even give you the opportunity to drink and drive since someone is automatically coming to get you with no cost. People always say they will walk or uber, but in the rare case they are tired or don't want to pay, the opportunity for drinking and driving is created. I think having a designated driver is always the wisest option.

• The second time I saw wisdom this past week was during class. A student was talking to my professor about being absent for a quiz due to some activity, and was asking to try to make up the quiz or re-schedule. The professor had previously told us that we cannot make up quizzes when we are absent. The professor decided to help the student out and let let them make it up, which I saw to be wise. I think as a general rule, that policy makes sense, but when a student comes to a professor asking for help and is actively trying to complete everything they can, I don't see why a professor wouldn't help. Some professors are not wise on this aspect of classes, but I believe this professor was wise."

Labouvie-Vief, "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.

• Thesis: The revival of interest in wisdom is important for highlighting the differences between models of cognition in classical thought and over the life span."Many recent writings suggest, instead, that theories of cognition or intelligence that are based on ^ the assumption of the primacy of objective forms of knowing provide an incomplete and possibly distorted picture of the human mind." 52

• Piaget: inner/outer processes. assimilation/accommodation (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

• Platonic thought represents a huge break from this. "For Plato, the adult is no longer embedded in a concrete, organic, and participatory reality." 59

• Piaget: model of child development is initially organic, but only in early stages of life. goal of development. Goal is independence of subjectivity (66)

• Homeric heroes not self-reflective, embedded in action, see themselves moved by divine forces.

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

Clayton and Birren, "The Development of Wisdom across the Life Span"

• Note from historical treatment: East/West differences. Compare to Gisela.

• Western biblical tradition: Three paths. formal education for leadership, parental, faith/devotion (wisdom as gift from divine). 105-106.

• Eastern traditions. comparison on role of intellect 109. words vs. experience and deeds. meditation (110)

• Nice definition at p. 112. "for some time, mankind has held the conviction that there is a superior, complex, and understanding and experience of the ultimate nature of reality and man's relationship to this reality."

• Multidimensional Scaling Study: Note method (see link on wiki) and results. Cognitive, affective, and reflective qualities.

• Note discussion at 119. Older subjects place wisdom further from age.

• Conclusion at 130: Older subjects also connect wisdom more closely with affective understanding and empathy

• All age groups perceive wisdom as "integration of cognitive, affective, and reflective components."

• Erickson, Kohlberg - focused on wisdom as an extra stage near end of life.

• Piaget -- not well positioned to consider life span.

Ardelt, Wisdom and Satisfaction in Old Age

• three tiered theory of wisdom: wisdom occurs on cognitive, reflective and affective levels.

• note bottom of first page. leaving the cog/delib model in earlier theories.

• "the domain of wisdom-related knowledge is interpretative knowledge, or the rediscovery of the significance of old truths through a deeper and more profound understanding of phenomena and events." 16

• associates wisdom of old with decentered self - awareness of limitations liberating. "paradoxically, it is the awareness oof one's subjectivity or one's projections that allows one to begin the task of overcoming that subjectivity" 16

• Research hypothesis: "wisdom, rather than objective life conditions, explains most of the variation in life satisfaction during old age."

• working with population from the Berkeley Guidance Study. administered a life satisfaction instrument "satisfaction with different areas of life, satisfaction with one's lot in life, and congruence between desired and achieved goals." 17 (note: goal-achievement gap model)

• 17: wisdom as latent variable. integration of cognitive, affective, and reflective. note use of validated instruments within the research.

• 21: alternate correlates considered: objective health and financial condition might be 35% (poss. 46% in men!) of variation. but authors claim better fit from wisdom as independent variable.

• results p. 22--

• positive correlation for both men and women, but stronger for men.
• wisdom not significantly correlated with objective conditions in later life (for women) -- discussion of the reasons the data for men were different (see p. 22).

• 24: follow theoretical discussion, argument for focusing on wisdom. note at 25.

Carstensen, "The Influence of a Sense of Time on Human Development"

• The subjective sense of future time plays an essential role in human motivation. Gradually, time left becomes a better predictor than chronological age for a range of cognitive, emotional,and motivational variables. Socioemotional selectivity theory maintains that constraints on time horizons shift motivational priorities in such a way that the regulation of emotional states becomes more important than other types of goals. This motivational shift occurs with age but also appears in other contexts (for example, geographical relocations, illnesses, and war) that limit subjective future time.

• interesting point: child dev mostly about time since birth. she's interested in time remaining.

• sst: two categories shift: motivation for knowledge acquisition and regulation of emotion.

• presents the theory in this short article. notes research, such as that older people process negative emotion less deeply and spend more time on positive emotions.

Some results:

• SST predicts that young are more likely to endure negative affect to pursue goals, older more likely to have small social networks, less focus on novelty
• Research studies @ bot of col 1 p. 1914.
• Less activation in amygdala of negative emotion in older people. Note hyposthesis on why younger people might need higher activation of negative emotion.

Small Group Discussion #2

1. In light of Carstensen's work, what can we say about the "wisdom of endings"? How does a wisdom person approach endings as opposed to beginnings?