Spring 2015 Wisdom Course Lecture Notes

Return to Wisdom

JAN 14

1st Day of Class Information

• Websites in the course

• Course Website: Alfino.org -- courses -- Spring 2015 Wisdom -- access grading schemes, ereserves (pdfs of readings), audio files, email.
• Course Wiki: Alfino.org -- wiki -- Wisdom (or from course website). All course information is linked from the course wiki page.
• Turning Point] -- Download and install Responseware ($19)
• Peerceptiv -- Register for this peer review site ($5) -- enter expert44 to register for the class.

• Assignments for your grading schemes.
• Grading approach -- friendly grading curve.
• Two rubrics: Flow/Content and Flow/Logic/Insight

The Prep Cycle

• Read for class. Get main ideas. Show reading knowledge on clicker quiz. (Content portion of class.)
• Come to class. (Method portion of class.)
• Note study questions and work to answer them during class. (We will do some short answer exercises to work on this.) Review if you don't feel you can answer the study questions after class. The Flow/Content rubric applies to this.
• Repeat.

This is our basic pattern, but as we learn more we will build toward larger theoretical questions which are the basis of the exam essays and paper.

JAN 21

Hall, Chapter 1 "What is Wisdom?"

• opening story, point about wisdom
• p. 11: some traits of wise people, 12: some wise people
• Perceptions of wise individuals and gender.
• his approach, p. 16 (using science) - definition of wisdom, bot. 17 -- list these --
• Hall's initial theoretical definition: bot 18 -- read & note

Small group questions

Apply Hall's trait list and definition to people you regard as wise, places where wisdom is taught or occurs, or states of mind that promote it.

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

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

• 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

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.

JAN 28

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.

• Topic of discussion: Are older people wiser?

• 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 cog, affective, 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-- pos. correlation for both men and women, but stronger for men.

• 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 timehorizons 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.