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.

• 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.

Small Group Discussion #1

• Topic of discussion for small groups: Are older people wiser? If experience alone isn't enough, what other factors are required? Also, try to evaluate that cognitive, affective, and reflective capacities are crucial to wisdom. Give examples of each.

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.

Small Group Discussion #2

• Can the subjective sense of future time be manipulated by attentional effort or contemplative practices?

FEB 4

Birren and Svensson, Wisdom in History (2005)

• 2005 -- Wisdom in History -- This article gives us a broader historical perspective than earlier ones, but also a good summary of the paths taken by researchers (14-29).

• 1st historical treatment (in the course)that hits on the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution.

• Connects with ancients on relation between knowledge and wisdom.
• Uncertainty: maybe wisdom is required where there is uncertainty. Knowledge reduces uncertainty. What follows?

• Group Discussion Topic: Compare the following two hypotheses:

• 1. Wisdom disappears after the Scientific Revolution because we know a lot more now about how to live. (post renaissance, Bacon anyone?)
• 2. Wisdom disappears after the Scientific Revolution because scientific culture downplays the problem of finding "precetps for living" (I'll add notes on each.)

• Discussion of Plato: repeats a version of Laouvie-Vief's thesis: note p. 5
• Note Aristotle paragraph at bot of 5. Perfect answer to last week's exercise!

• What follows from the way wisdom can move from secular to religious culture so easily?
• Recurrent theme in historical discussion: models of wisdom that involve transcendence or paradigm shift (Greek, Judaic, Christian, Islamic culture, , vs. models that remain "immanent" in daily life (Confucian, Hellenistic, some biblical sources, Aristotlean, contemporary secular (post renaissance/enlightenment)

• Wisdom in the psychological sciences
  • Not really a central topic immediately. Not susceptible to rigorous definition or a bottom up approach (though now we'll see that in Hall's reporting, in the day (pre-80s), this was harder to see. So you have to have really good vision (like William James and John Dewey) to see it). Also, Erikson, Jung.
  • Definitions of wisdom present in Sternberg. table on 16-18. Look at Baltes and Smith. Note how the relative weight cognitive capacities changes across the definitions. Can you notice tensions between particular definitions. Page through the brief discussion of research projects, p. 16-25. Quick group consultation.

• Discuss "meta-cognitive" dimension of wisdom. (17)
• Wisdom and age (19)

• First characterization of Berlin Wisdom Paradigm: also Hall 49. Note method, model included historical study. criticisms (note positive aspect here). Ardelt trajectory (Hall)
• Sternberg's direction: relation of wisdom to intelligence and creativity (note on method here: use of constructs.)
• Taranto: focus on human limitation.
• Kramer: organismic. cognition/affect. five functions.
• McKee and Barber: "seeing through illusion"
• Meacham: fallibility of knowledge. balance of positivity/doubt.
• Chandler and Holliday: most well developed construct after Baltes. (23)

Hall, Wisdom, Chapter 3 "Heart and Mind"

• Note that Hall is telling something of the "sociology of knowledge" about the rise of wisdom research.
• Vivian Clayton -- reflects on family member's traits. poses question of meaning of wisdom and relation to age. Follow statement on p. 43. Also, note from the end of the chapter about her story. Choice.
• Erikson -- idea of wisdom as end stage "8" of process of self-realization. (really more "rationalist psychology")

• Interesting hypothesis in face of growth of knowledge in gerontology about decay of faculties. Correction to last week's

• Hall's account of Genesis myth as also about acquiring "original wisdom" -- wisdom as the price of seeing things clearly. wisdom as necessarily acquired through transgression vs. living within limits. also "dark wisdom".
• Baltes, Smith, Staudinger, Kunzemann. -- Berlin Wisdom Paradigm -- brief overview, 49ff. Note how he derived his construct and method of research. +96
• Early critics: Sarstensen and Ardelt -- felt BWP didn't focus enough on emotion.

Hall, Chapter 4, "Emotional Regualtion"

• Emotional regulation as a compensating strength of aging. (Hypothesized as an achievement, but let's reflect on that a moment.)

• "Carstensen and her colleagues have proposed that successful emotional regulation is tightly connected to a persons sense of time—usually, but not always, time as it is reflected by one's age and stage of life. "According to our theory, this isn't a quality of aging per se, but of time horizons," she explained. "When your time perspective shortens, as it does when you come closer to the ends of things, you tend to focus on emotionally meaningful goals. " 63

• socioemotional selectivity theory (Cartensen's) - How can the benefits of this view become available to the young?

• Job's emotional resilience. Is it patience or resilience? What is the diff?

• problem in history of philosophy -- downplaying of emotion. But then Hume, and James' "What is an Emotion?"

• Gross: "reappraisal" and "reflection" as techniques of emotional regulation. vs. rumination 66. note mechanism suggested for each. (Note connection to therapeutic writing.)

• Cartensens' research in assisted living homes. counterintuitive answers. (67) "time horizon" theory. Implications.

• Carstensen on the paradigmatic tasks of the young: "knowledge trajectory" (70); "collectors" 71,

• 71: neuroscience on learning from loss; affective forecasting; young as steep "discounters"; greater appetite for risk, less for ambiguity,

• 73: emotional resilience in Davidson's longitudinal neuroscience research: correlation of emotional regulation and brain pattern. Gabrielli studies on young amygdalas. Gross on male/female emotional processing.

• postive illusion (optimism bias)

• "Grandparent hypothesis"

• Concluding Group Discussion: Is emotional regulation something that a young person could use to mimic the emotional regulative experience of older people? Is such a goal possible, desirable?

FEB 11

Baltes & Smith, "Toward a Psychology of Wisdom and its Ontegenesis" 1990

• Motivations for the Berlin Paradigm's research: study of peak performance, positive aspects of aging, work on intelligence that reflects a concern with context and life pragmatics, Baltes & Smith p. 87

• Interesting discussion of problem of giving a scientific treatment of wisdom, p. 89.

• Fundamental assumption #1: Wisdom is an "expert knowledge system" (what is an expert system - mention Affectiva)
• Fundamental assumption:#2: A dual-process model of intelligence (Mechanics / Pragmatics) is most relevant to understanding wisdom.
• Fundamental assumption #3: Wisdom is about life pragmatics, understood as life planning, review

• The "Baltes Five" Criteria Construct for Wisdom:

• Rich factual knowledge: accumulation of knowledge which facilitates predictive ability to see how relationships, causes, and meanings will interact in a situation. "a representation of the expected sequential flow of events in a particular situation"
• Rich procedural knowledge: accumulation of knowledge which facilitates understanding of strategies of problem solving, advice seeking.
• Life span contextualism: understanding a problem in awareness of it's place in the life span.
• Relativism: Understanding and taking into account the range of values, goals, and priorities in human life.
• Uncertainty: awareness of limits of knowledge in general and in particular factual cases.

Small Group Exercise

• For each of the five, identify 3 examples, a word or phrase to describe someone not good at that aspect, a critical question or two.

Baltes & Freund, "Wisdom as Meta-Heuristic and SOC" 2002

• Sophia vs. Phronesis (one more time)

• Selection, Optimization, and Compensation is a collection of behavioral strategies for managing life pragmatics.

• Note definition of wisdom p. 251: strategies for peak or optimal functioning. but must be normative. Need to actually know something about what is really important in human flourishing to produce wisdom (this could be seen as a knowledge bias or a legitimate grounding of wisdom in knowledge). Baltes & Co. are siding with the traditions of philosophy and religion on this one. Wisdom is normative.

• Good review of Baltes (Berlin) Paradigm: note detail on "recognition and management of uncertainty" p. 253.

• Wisdom as Meta-heuristic. Definition p. 255. "a heuristic can be defined as a "useful shortcut, an approximation, or a rule of thumb for guiding search" "If wisdom as a meta-heuristic operates effectively, the expectation is that its use creates the cognitive and motivational foundation from which well-being can be achieved. In this sense, wisdom can be seen as the embodiment of the best subjective belief about laws of life that a culture has to offer and that individuals under favorable conditions are able to acquire."

Quick exercise: identify contemporary meta-heuristics in your experience

• SOC -- a heuristic for delineating, pursuing, and reviewing goals. (It's a heuristic for life management, so relevant to the Baltes paradigm)

• Selection -- of goals -- can be either elective selection or loss selection. Deliberate, articulate... approach vs. avoidance goals. loss also from zero sum aspect of goals as when an athlete becomes a scholar.
• Optimization -- of means. "Acquire and invest" - sub-skills like "monitoring between actual and desired state" - ability to delay gratification (Mischel)
• Compensation -- response to loss of means. Response to events.

• Proverbs as heuristics -- study found that SOC strategies were selected more often and faster than non-SOC strategies.

• Study showing SOC associated with "positive functioning" (NOTE: This relates to the "hard problem" of wisdom. Figuring out whether wisdom really "works".)

• Rubenstein quote at 265. Brim's "My Father's Window Box"

Kunzman and Baltes, "The Psychology of Wisdom: Theoretical and Practical Challenges"

• Challenges:

1. defining wisdom in a way that separates it from other human excellences.
2. formulating a definition of wisdom that can be empirically investigated.

• Distinction between implicit and explicit (112).

• Three types of wisdom constructs:

1. wisdom as aspect of personality development in later life (Erikson) - characterized by detachment from self-interest (note: not the only option)
2. post-formal thinking (gisela); "Dialectical thinking derives from the insight that knowledge about self & others, and the world evolves in an everlasting process of theses, antitheses, and syntheses. From this perspective, wisdom has been described as the integration of different modes of knowing" 115
3. form of intelligence and expertise (Baltes)

• Note: We'll add at least a fourth to this when we look at culture and wisdom later in the term.

• clearer explanation (than Baltes and Smith) of "cognitive mechanics" vs. "cognitive pragmatics" (116)

• "Big Picture" Review Model on p. 120. Note how it points to further topics that we will discuss in the semester. Note on 122: at young ages, we over identify high IQ individuals as wise. (Parallel to misperception of old as wise.)

• Discussion Topic: Must wisdom be oriented toward the individual and common good? sketch arguments together briefly.

• Empirical Results from "Think Aloud" research:

1. High scores rare.
2. Late adolescence and early adulthood is primary age window for onset of wisdom. Age doesn't predict score increases after that.
3. Development of wisdom beyond it's early onset depends upon "expertise-enhancing" factors, such as development of social/cognitive style, presence of role models, and motivational preferences such as an interest in understanding others. Personality not predicted as a factor (note contrast to happiness research).

Misc

(Some notes on Ontogenesis of wisdom from these three readings.)

• Note how you can explain the "age of onset" of wisdom as optimization of cognitive mechanics and pragmatics (suggests it can't be too old and that oldsters who maintain good mechanics (rare) might be outliers (high in wisdom)).

• from Kunzman and Baltes: "... the period of late adolescence and early adulthood is the primary age window for a first foundation of wisdom-related knowledge to emerge." p. 122 for details.

• from Baltes and Smith, p.110. research on old/young, normative/nonnormative, target age of problem. Suggests that older are not the optimal performance group when considering the different conditions the research looked at.

• from later reading -- Baltes & Freund, "... we know that the body of knowledge and cognitive skills associated with wisdom has its largest rate of change gradient in late adolescence and young adulthood (Pasupathi & Bakes,2000; Staudinger, 1999a). St). Subsequent age changes are a result of specific circumstances of life and nonintellectual attributes. For instance, the development of wisdom-related knowledge during adulthood is more conditioned by personality, cognitive style, and life experience than by psychometric intelligence (Staudinger, Maciel, Smith, & Bakes, 1998). "

FEB 18

Hall, Chapter 6 Moral Reasoning

• One question to ask while thinking about this chapter: Do wise people regulate their emotions and does that make for better moral and non-moral decision-making?
• Wisdom interpretation of Genesis. p. 99. alluded to at 44.
• Evidence of emotional and automatic cognition in moral responses. Darwin's speculation on moral emotions. (102) Haidt, emodog, disgust, Trolley Prob.
• Video for the Trolley Problem [1]
• Background: Marc Hauser and the Trolley Problem (106)
• Joshua Greene, fMRIs of people doing the Trolley Problem. Seems to capture moments of emo/cog conflict. Fits with Damasio's research with lesion patients vmPFC. Some can't factor in emotion. "Secret Joke of Kant's Soul" -- this evidence ends the debates in traditional moral philosophy over utility vs. deontology.

• Wisdom implications: parsing of moral deliberation in various parts of the brain suggests need for wholism. Meta-claim: Wisodom as knowing how to weigh different kinds of moral reasons (some relating to loyalty, development, efficiency), different types of personal goals. If this implication holds for you, try to develop the idea in your group discussion by considering examples from life.

• Wisdom implications from disgust evidence: extent of trained response. possibility of retraining: examples from personal experience: Can you recall a topic or issue on which you feel that you changed your emotional responses as a result of either personal experience or learning.

Haidt, Emo Dog

• This article takes us further into a scientific view that claims that cognition is rarely "causal" in moral decision-making. (The rational tail on the emotional dog.)

• "social intuitionist model" --

• Note the critique in "Philosophy and the worship of Reason" parallels Labouvie-Vief's. Hume ends the tradition of denying the importance of emotions.

• Kohlberg still a model for rationalist psychology. [2]

• In stead of this, Haidt and moral psychologists contrast Intuitive ("the Elephant") and Reasoning (the "Rider") systems. Reasoning happens after Intuition. Intuition is driving more of our decision making than we think. Illusion of rational cause.

1. Dual Processing - literature on automatic assessment, close to perception, automatic judgement, attitude formation (820), very scary.

2. Motivated Reasoning Problem -- reasoning more like a lawyer and scientist. biases: relatedness -- favors harmony and agreement. coherence

• "the desire to hold attitudes and beliefs that are congruent with existing self-definitional attitudes and beliefs" 821 other biases
• Various motives for ad hoc reasoning: relatedness, coherence (terror management), bias,

3. The Post Hoc Problem -- Nisbett and Wilson 77 - experiments, such as placebo study which solicits post hoc and ad hoc reasoning, split brain patients (Gazzaniga... confabulation)

4. The Action Problem -- weak link bt. moral reasoning and moral action. Mischel marshmallow research 823. vmPFC - Damasio research.

• Theoretical possibilities for theory of wisdom: 1. Can you change responses? 2. In what ways? (again, the problem of criteria)

• What implications are there for this turn in moral philosophy for our thinking about wisdom?

• Nature and culture have produced a mixed legacy of older and new systems. Need for balance.
• A Wisdom Retraining project would involve not only emotions themselves (what should I feel disgusted, disapproving, or afraid of?) but noticing when the inner lawyer creates the illusion of rational belief.

Hall, Chapter 7: Compassion

• [Puzzle to solve by the end of this review of the chapter: Is compassion worth it? Why would I want to share someone's pain? Why not just make an intellectual acknowledgement of it and send a card?]

• anecdote on the siege of Weinsberg, 1140.

• "By compassion is meant not only the willingness to share another person's pain and suffering; in a larger sense, it refers to a transcendent ability to step outside the moat of one's own self-interest to understand the point of view of another; in a still larger sense, it may take this "feeling for" to the level of mind reading, for the theory of mind — one of the most powerful implements that evolution placed in the human cognitive tool kit—requires us to understand the way another person's feelings inform his or her intentions and actions." 116 Connecting compassion to research on theory of mind.

• Weisskopf: Knowledge without compassion inhumane. Compassion without knowledge ineffective.

• Matthieu Ricard and Richard Davidson studies. (no overarching theory here, but note Davidson on p. 121) Davidson believes in poss of "training" toward increased well being.

• Ricard: gloss on wisdom at 121: mirrors: Mechanics and Pragmatics in Baltes. also makes the case, on 122, that compassion is based on an understanding of how things are connected, how happiness and suffering are connected. Knowing that there are ways to address suffering fuels compassion, which also helps us understand how things are connected. (Note this is one answer to the puzzle. A Christian could offer a similar answer.)

• general point: importance in this research of thinking of compassion as having a neural substrate and a function in our psychology. We don't have great research on exactly what we can do with it or it's actual function.

• 126: mirror neurons and empathy.

• 128: notion of "embodiedness" of our responses to the world. read. not just cognitive.

• 130: Richerson and Boyd's cultural hypothesis: imitation - learning - division of labor - other centeredness. All capacities that require a "theory of mind" which includes feeling other's emotions. Theory of mind refers to a set of capacities, but also a way of seeing the world.

• Wisdom implications: Is cultivation of compassion on your wisdom to do list? Why or why not?

Hall, Chapter 8: "Humility"

• puzzle about humility. How can Gandhi embody both humility and the kind of great ambition he achieved? Is humility consistent with action in the world? Halls narrates humility as a source of strength for Gandhi. Let's evaluate this.

• broader resonances of meaning of humility: groundedness, down to earth, not so much captured by "modest opinion of one's self"
• In religion -- piety and obedience to God. 137 Aquinas: operating "within one's bounds" and submission. Digression on "recognition of talent -- anecdote on critter game. Good empirical test for humility as self-awareness of one's talents and capacities.

• Hall suggests social / evolutionary function for humility: "If we consider obedience in a secular or, even more narrowly, behavioral sense, it may help explain why humility persists as a virtue. It is one of those traits that acts as a social lubricant, greasing the wheels of group interaction, minimizing interpersonal friction, enhancing the odds for cooperation." 138 (anecdote from Inv. Gorrilla - Go)

• narcissism among CEOs. may contribute to financial instability of firms. correlates with white collar crime. inverse of humility. best CEOs blend humility with strong will.

• Final operationalizable characteristics of humility (from June Tangney): "an ability to acknowledge limitations and mistakes, an openness to new ideas and new contradictory knowledge, a knack for avoiding self-aggrandizement, an ability to keep one's achievements in perspective, and the king of self-aware self-perception that perceives both strengths and weaknesses."

• Implications for wisdom: Tension between humility and effectiveness. Also, consider humility in the context of the individualism and careerism of US culture. Is humility a viable strategy in this culture?

FEB 25

Introduction to Buddhism

• from wikipedia

• The Four Noble Truths

1 There is suffering.

2 There is the origination of suffering: suffering comes into existence in dependence on causes.

3 There is the cessation of suffering: all future suffering can be prevented by becoming aware of our ignorance and undoing the effects of it.

4 There is a path to the cessation of suffering.

8 fold path. (see above and in Feuerstein.)

Division	Eightfold Path factors	Acquired factors
Wisdom (Sanskrit: prajñā, Pāli: paññā)	1. Right view	9. Superior right knowledge
	2. Right intention	10. Superior right liberation
Ethical conduct (Sanskrit: śīla, Pāli: sīla)	3. Right speech
	4. Right action
	5. Right livelihood
Concentration (Sanskrit and Pāli: samādhi)	6. Right effort
	7. Right mindfulness
	8. Right concentration

Holder, The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving

The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving starts with the "bad" monk, Sati, who thinks that reincarnation might involve the same consciousness (and so the survival of the self after death). The other bhikkhus rat him out to the Buddha, who calls him out over the issue (in a gentle Buddha way, but still by referring to him as "you misguided person") and goes on to describe both the process of "devolution" by which ignorance leads us to craving (65) and the process of purification that brings about a reversal (66) of the process. Prior to following the eightfold path, our experience (seeing, hearing, etc.) entails an unhealthy attachment. After, we presumably have the same kinds of experiences, but without unhealthy attachment.

• This text also has a great representation of the theory of dependent origination: "So, bhikkhus, dependent on ignorance, there are dispositions to action; dependent on dispositions to action, there is consciousness; dependent on consciousness, there is psycho-physicality; dependent on psycho-physicality, there are the six bases of sense; dependent on the six bases of sense, there is contact; dependent on contact, there is feeling; dependent on feeling, there is craving; dependent on craving, there is attachment; dependent on attachment, there is becoming; dependent on becoming, there is birth; dependent on birth, there is aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, and distress. Thus there is the arising of this whole mass of suffering." 65 note corresponding paragraph on p. 66.

• Note story of "natural" growth and attachment, p. 67, folllowed by realization and pursuit of enlightenment. Consciousness is dependently arisen in the world (relying on the 4 nutriments, for example), and conditioned by its connections with the world (bot 62), from perception to bodily and mental. Moreover, consciousness is reckoned by it conditions. Follow analogy to fire on top of 63.

• After the destruction of craving, the question: "Did we exist in the past? Did we not exist in the past?" doesn't make sense. (As in Ricard, we get to the point of seeing our self as a conditioned and conventional reality.)

• Sections 15 and 16: description of what it would have been like to take up the challenge of pursuing enlightenment. Destruction of craving (and, in Ricard, of the ego) is a challenging project. (Requires undermining the natural processes that lead to our suffering.) Wisdom involves transcending material nature, but not finding refuge in a spiritual reality. Sections 17 and 18 describe the pleasures of this enlightenment.

Matthieu Ricard, Chs. 6&7: Alchemy of Suffering and Veils of the Ego

Chapter Six: Alchemy of Suffering

• Shortest history of the kingdom: "They Suffer"

• Pervasive suffering -- from growth and development
• Suffering of Change -- from illusion of permanence.
• Multiplicity of Suffering -- suffering from awareness of the many ways things can go wrong.
• Hidden Suffering -- anxiousness about hidden dangers

• Sources of Suffering -- self-centeredness, our unhappiness is caused, 4 Noble Truths.
• Problem: How can you have a philosophy that tells you that you shouldn't "lose it" in calamity?

• Methods for responding to suffering -- meditation, use of mental imagery.

Chapter Seven: Veils of the Ego

• Ego as a fear reaction to the world.
• Observing the ego at work: example of the vase, the asymmetry of our response is a clue.
• Problem: How can I live without an ego? R's response: true self-confidence is egoless.

• Cites Paul Ekman's studies of emotionally exceptional people. egoless and joyful
• Gives brief account of the illusion of self.