Fall 2011 Wisdom Course Study Question Answers

Hey everyone, so as Dr. Alfino announced, there was interest in a group study page, and so here it is, I've already started to put some of my answers up, feel free to include another possible answer or a new one!
Jett
P.S. Don't forget to put your name with your post, take pride in your answers!

September 12, 2011

• 1. How is Pericles wisdom different from Socrates'? What terms from Greek philosophy describe each?
• 2. Drawing on the Hall reading, how might contemporary science tell us something about wisdom?
• 3. Identify definitions of wisdom and traits associated with wisdom.
• 4. Identify the general views on wisdom of Socrates, Buddha, and Confucius.
• 5. Describe the "perspective shift" in the Aquinas quote in the Robinson article. Does this seem like a basic trait of wise thinking?

September 14, 2011

• 1. What is Socrates' view of wisdom? How did he come to this view? What insights and limitations does it hold for you?
  • Socrates believed that people had a pretense to knowledge, and that was how philosophy was born. The Socratic irony was that Socrates thought the only way of knowing something for certain was through transcendence, when it would no longer be of use. His two beliefs were that humility is a big part of wisdom, and that there is likely no such thing as human wisdom. Socrates came to this view through annoying much of the people of after the Oracle at Delphi said he was the wisest man.
• 2. How does Plato connect a belief in the soul to the idea of wisdom as a transcendent state of knowledge? How does the myth of reincarnation fill in his view of the task of pursuing wisdom?
  • Plato believed that the soul was immortal, and therefore knowledge would be eternal, specifically invariable knowledge. If we can understand eternal knowledge, then we must be in part eternal as well. In Phaedo, Plato discusses how reincarnation leads to sage hood and with disembodiment would come wisdom.
• 3. What is Aristotle's basic theory of wisdom?
  • Aristotle's basic theories of wisdom were pretty opposite of Plato's; the soul dies when the body does, there are no forms, no eternal place, but believed their was invariable knowledge. For Aristotle, there was two types of knowledge within the rational part of the soul: the science part, and the calculative part. Science lead to laws and invariable truths, where the calculative mind lead to deliberation (judgement/variable), intellect, and desire, which had to be controlled. The Greek words for the two parts are episteme and phronesis, respectively. Aristotle thought that deliberation was a human good, and key to wisdom.
• 4. According to Osbeck, how is wisdom a kind of "making" for Aristotle?
  • Osbeck said that Aristotle saw wisdom as an art form, like sculpting and chipping away at the self to find the invariable truths that would make one wise. Through living and deliberating on practical knowledge given from past experiences, one could attain wisdom.

September 19, 2011

• 1. What is Labouvie-Vief's critique of Platonic thought and what remedy does she propose?
  • Labouvie-Vief's critique is that Plato separates the emotions from wisdom, and was anti-body in terms of wisdom (attained through logos). L-V's remedy is "reintegrated thought" and embracing the body in the theory of wisdom, i.e. applying mythos to the theory of wisdom. She believed that since logos was a static idea and mythos was a more relative idea, they could be equally valued to bring about human wisdom. In order to have wisdom, the concept that humans are constantly moving and changing, that the good is changing meant that knowledge would have to be applied to culture with this aspect in mind (using mythos).
• 2. What were the chief results of Clayton and Birren's multidimensional scaling research on wisdom?
• 3. What explanation might be offered for the result that older people value experience by not necessarily age in defining wisdom?
  • An old person that has never been outside couldn't possibly give advice on when a coat would be acceptable and for what weather, despite their age, something not similarly experienced before couldn't be advised upon. Older people would value experience more than age, because they are already at the age where young people thought that the wisdom would be pouring in, but the old people realize it isn't the years of life they have but the quality of life.
• 4. From the Clayton and Birren article, what would you say are the major theoretical claims of life span psychology regarding wisdom?

September 21, 2011

• 1. How did contemporary psychological work on wisdom get started in the 70s and 80s? Who were the main figures and what initial question and theories did they pose?
• 2. What, in general, was the Berlin Wisdom Pardigm? What did it's critics say about it?
• 3. How did researchers like Laura Carstensen investigate the hypothesis that older adults excel at emotional regulation and that this might be related to wisdom? What is her "time horizon" theory?
• 4. What is the grandparent hypothesis?

September 26, 2011

• 1. What are the major assumptions and features of the Baltes Paradigm of Wisdom?
• 2. Explicate and critically evaluate the five-criteria in Baltes' definition.
• 3. How did Baltes operationalize his definition of wisdom? Can wisdom be studied this way?
• 4. How does Aristotle figure out what happiness is in Book 1 of the Nichomachean Ethics?
• 5. Summarize and evaluate Aristotle's view of practical wisdom as "reasoned and true state of capacity to act with regard to human goods". Consider, for example, the relationships among practical wisdom, science, and knowledge.

September 28, 2011

• 1. What does it mean to think of wisdom as a "meta-heuristic"?
  • Thinking of wisdom as a "meta-heuristic," is thinking of wisdom as a form of a fast, time saving rule of thumb or short-cut when making life choices. The difference between a meta-heuristic from a proverb is that proverbs are usually tailored to a more detailed part of life, e.g. measure twice, cut once. This is likely more a proverb as it is not general enough to help govern a life choice, but the proverb could be more meta-heuristic if it was along the lines of "think twice before you act." Meta-heuristics can be learned from experiences, if you are always losing money through making bad choices, it would only reaffirm your stock in "Quit while your ahead." Jett
• 2. What is SOC theory and why might it related to wisdom theory? How is it similar/different?
  • SOC theory is a theory in life-span psychology that can be broken down into the three components: Selection, Optimization, Compensation. The theory delineates and reviews life goals by using three heuristics; 1., selection of gain-based goals, through deliberating, articulating and life planning; 2., optimization of means, or management of life using procedural knowledge; 3., compensation, that is the response to loss or response to events.
• 3. Summarize some of the key research findings from the Berlin Paradigm.Jett
  • Some of the research finding were that high scores were rare amongst the groups. Also, from late adolescence to early adulthood, the data supported a development of wisdom and found that there was no increase in wisdom in relation to age. Scores had some correlation to three factors: context-related (age, religion, and education), expertise-related (mentors, role models, professional training, and life experiences), and person-related (intelligence, personality traits, and motivation), which appeared to be contributing factors.Jett