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From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom

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A special issue of Philosophies (ISSN 2409-9287).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 45143

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Special Issue Editor

Mr. Nicholas Maxwell

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Guest Editor

Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Interests: the need for an academic revolution from knowledge to wisdom; the philosophy of science; the problem of the human world in the physical universe; the problem of consciousness; the problem of free will; evolution and life of value; quantum theory, probabilism and physical realism; recreation of natural philosophy; social inquiry as social methodology; the nature of philosophy; education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world is currently beset with global problems that threaten our future: the climate crisis; destruction of the natural world, loss of wild life, mass extinctions; pollution of earth, sea and air; lethal modern war; the menace of nuclear weapons; deranged politics assisted by the internet; and the pandemic (spread by modern travel). Some hold that all these global problems have been made possible by the extraordinarily successful pursuit of modern science and technology dissociated from a more fundamental concern to help humanity resolve conflicts and problems of living in more cooperatively rational ways, so that we may begin to make progress towards a better, wiser world. Are universities today, devoted as they are to the acquisition of knowledge, doing all that they might to help humanity solve our grave global problems? Or, do universities need to change, perhaps quite radically? If so, what changes need to be made, and how would these changes help? Do universities need to give intellectual priority to the task of helping humanity both discover, and do, what needs to be done to solve our urgent problems of living so that we may make progress to a wiser world? If so, what implications would this have for the social sciences and the humanities? What implications would it have for the way in which the university is related to the rest of the social world? What are the implications for education? How might natural science be affected? Is the basic intellectual aim of science to acquire knowledge of truth? Or, are there problematic assumptions concerning metaphysics, values, and politics inherent in the aims of science, which need scrutiny and improvement as science proceeds? Is academic inquiry, as at present constituted, genuinely rational in seeking to help promote human welfare? Could the basic aim of academic inquiry be to promote wisdom?

It is hoped that contributions to this Special Issue of Philosophies will explore questions such as these about how universities ought to be helping humanity solve global problems, and thus make progress towards a good, civilized, wise world.

Mr. Nicholas Maxwell
Guest Editor

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Keywords

global problems
academic revolution
rationality
knowledge
wisdom
education
nature of science
nature of social inquiry
knowledge and action

Published Papers (12 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 150 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

How Universities Can Best Respond to the Climate Crisis and Other Global Problems

by Nicholas Maxwell

Philosophies 2022, 7(1), 1; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies7010001 - 23 Dec 2021

Viewed by 1987

Abstract

The world is in a state of crisis [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

Research

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18 pages, 308 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Turning Traditional Wisdom of Culture around: Making a Possible Transition to a Wiser World Driven by Culture of Wisdom Inquiry Real

by Giridhari Lal Pandit

Philosophies 2021, 6(4), 90; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6040090 - 22 Oct 2021

Viewed by 2643

Abstract

In this article I discuss the problem of how we can change our world into a wiser world that is driven by a culture of wisdom inquiry (CWI), i.e., a world that frees humanity from a looming totalitarian catastrophe. How best can we interrogate the traditional wisdom of culture (TWC) that is responsible for the academic institutions of learning, among other kinds of institutions, dogmatically and solely aiming at the acquisition of knowledge and technological prowess (technologisches koennen), instead of the promotion of wisdom and human well-being? What kind of strategic transformations of institutional design, policy and goals within diverse institutions, particularly academic institutions of learning, regionally and globally, are imperative? This article argues from the principle of universal interconnectedness across nature/universe and the fundamental asymmetry of human well-being interests and nature’s well-being interests. From this, the development of a culture of wisdom inquiry as an overarching (allumfassend) methodology of institutional change from within at two levels of analysis is proposed, viz., (1) at the level of the ecological–economic analysis of safeguarding nature’s abundant ecosystems from human greed; and (2) at the level of the transformation of the educational, academic and political–economic institutions, as well as international institutions, that must be dedicated to human well-being. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

11 pages, 245 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Regenerative Collaboration in Higher Education: A Framework for Surpassing Sustainability and Attaining Regeneration

by Chara Armon

Philosophies 2021, 6(4), 82; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6040082 - 02 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2745

Abstract

Many in higher education seek to define how to respond to our environmental crisis. Our 20th and early 21st century failures to resolve the crisis have revealed that a focus on “sustainability” is inadequate in its goals, methods, and public appeal. Higher education must now advance its contribution to preparing graduates to enact the regeneration the damaged natural world requires. We now must teach the deep “why” of caring for our home planet as our life partner, exceed the standard of sustainability to focus on the more enduring and restorative standard of regeneration, and offer our students knowledge and skills for effective regenerative action. Colleges and universities can define their primary goal as teaching students how to tend the flourishing and regeneration of the life community via an emphasis on regenerative collaboration. Regenerative collaboration consists of principles that can guide higher education into a stage of deep contribution to regeneration of the natural world and human well-being. The framework of regenerative collaboration promotes transformation of academic disciplines, academic departments, and courses and calls for development of practical regenerative skills to be part of every degree program. Regenerative collaboration is a means of enacting higher education’s transition from a knowledge focus to a wisdom and regenerative action focus. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

26 pages, 4594 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Foundations of a Wisdom-Cultivating Pedagogy: Developing Systems Thinking across the University Disciplines

by Mark Bracher

Philosophies 2021, 6(3), 73; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6030073 - 01 Sep 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4160

Abstract

Efforts to educate for wisdom are sorely needed in order to solve humanity’s most pressing problems, as explained by philosopher Nicholas Maxwell and psychologist Robert Sternberg, among others. This paper explains that the handful of wisdom pedagogies that have been put forward to date, however, are inadequate for developing the sort of wisdom that can solve our major problems, because they fail to identify and target for development four cognitive functions necessary for wise decision-making. These functions are causal analysis, prospection, social cognition, and metacognition. I show how adequately performing these cognitive functions, which constitute the core of systems thinking, is necessary for solving our most serious global problems, as various systems-thinking experts have also argued. Drawing on recent research on learning and the development of expertise, I explain how the capabilities to perform these functions can be developed by pedagogical methods that help students construct more adequate cognitive models of (i) natural, social, and psychological systems of cause and effect and (ii) the cognitive procedures required to comprehend and effectively intervene in these systems. The basic principles for implementing this wisdom/systems-thinking pedagogy across academic disciplines are explained, and examples from different disciplines are provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

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28 pages, 2178 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Old Pedagogies for Wise Education: A Janussian Reflection on Universities

by Zane M. Diamond

Philosophies 2021, 6(3), 64; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6030064 - 03 Aug 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2789

Abstract

This paper presents a synthesis of time-honoured pedagogical approaches to develop wisdom suitable to address the urgent problem-solving requirement of the modern university. During these last 30 years, I have employed a range of critical, interpretivist, qualitative research methods to examine archival and archaeological evidence and conduct cross-cultural and often comparative and international case studies to study wisdom. My central concern has been to understand how teachers across diverse locations throughout history have learned to develop wisdom and how they have educated others to such understandings. As part of this work, I examined the modern university and its capacity to engage with local knowledge and wisdom. Over the course of analysis, I find that one of the constraints of scaling up institutions for learning wisdom into the now global model of the university is that universities have forgotten how to develop wisdom in the race towards industrialisation, colonisation, and neo-liberalism within the scientific paradigm. One of the early sacrifices of such scaling up was the ability of the university to preserve an intention to develop the wisdom of its students. Therefore, distant memory now is the ideation of wisdom that many societies and civilisations, and their institutions of higher learning, are in danger of forgetting the pedagogical pathway to do so. The paper begins with an examination of the long history of pedagogies for the development of wisdom. I then briefly discuss the methodological aspects of this paper and explain my key terms: information, knowledge and wisdom, followed by an examination of wisdom through the lens of the teaching and learning modalities of the Oral, Written, and Printing. My synthesis of wisdom artefacts and stories about pedagogy suggests that while wisdom is individually sensed, understood, and lived phenomenologically, its meaning is latent, socially agreed, and constrained in terms of how and if universities might cultivate its essential elements. Taking a Janussian backward- and forward-looking view, I propose a remembering and reconnecting approach to educating for wisdom through purposeful consideration of what we know about time-honoured pedagogies for teaching and learning wisdom, what are its current constraints, and what are its future opportunities in the university into the new postmodern, planetary, virtual education era. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

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30 pages, 3630 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Searching for Practical Wisdom in Higher Education with Logos, Pathos and Ethos. Case: Finnish Universities of Sciences

by Maria Jakubik

Philosophies 2021, 6(3), 63; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6030063 - 30 Jul 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5452

Abstract

In our complex and highly connected world, educating for life—that is, educating students with knowledge, skills, and competences infused with practical wisdom (PW) and ethical and moral values—is essential. The paper seeks to answer the question: how could university education facilitate the progress to a wiser and better world? The methodology involves case study research (CSR) based on both secondary and primary data. The missions, visions, and values of fourteen public Finnish universities are analyzed for PW. The findings demonstrate that universities, by becoming more open, unbounded, and enacting organizations, and by enhancing collaboration with businesses, could foster the cultivation of PW in higher education (HE). The novelty of this paper is the creative communication of the case study, where kairos, logos, pathos, and ethos are used to explore a new reality for HE. The article contributes to the contemporary discourses in the literature on the future of HE. Educators in HE need to transform from knowledge workers to wise leaders, wisdom workers, creators, empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. The context of the case study research makes it difficult to generalize. Therefore, international, comparative research is used to complement the findings. The eight-stage change process applied to universities and HE could help in solving the urgent problems of society and facilitating progress to a wiser and better world. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

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23 pages, 7443 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Philosophy and Psychology Engaged: The Sincere, Practical, Timely and Felicitous Proposal of a Highly Suitable Marriage

by Larry Culliford

Philosophies 2021, 6(1), 19; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6010019 - 01 Mar 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3180

Abstract

Multiple impending threats signify a pressing need for improved social relations globally. School leavers, curious about people and life, are naturally attracted to philosophy and psychology. An open alliance of the two will enhance their contributions towards a healthier future for humanity. A six-stage scheme of developmental psychology towards ‘individuation’, ‘full personality integration’ and ‘universalism’—including a description of transition processes between stages—defines shared goals for both disciplines. A paradigm change introduces a hierarchically superior, seamlessly encompassing, ‘spiritual’ dimension to the established physical, biological, psychological and social dimensions of human experience and understanding, and shifts dominance from worldly, materialist priorities towards a set of universal values associated with wisdom. Influencing education, science, politics and economics, this development produces worldwide benefits. To further character development towards wisdom and maturity, thus promoting humanity’s psychological and philosophical evolution, undergraduate courses can be modified simply and gradually by introducing students to ‘wisdom practice’ routines aimed at broadening horizons of experience and promoting helpful skills, including those of contemplation, meditation, discernment, empathy, and self-control. Following the Conclusion, an Addendum ends the paper with a closing allegory to convey the wisdom of such a suggestion, pointing towards a timely, practical and potentially profitable new beginning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

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11 pages, 227 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sisyphus and Climate Change: Educating in the Context of Tragedies of the Commons

by Susan T. Gardner

Philosophies 2021, 6(1), 4; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6010004 - 12 Jan 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2169

Abstract

The tragedy of the commons is a primary contributing factor in ensuring that humanity makes no serious inroads in averting climate change. As a recent Canadian politician pointed out, we could shut down the Canadian economy tomorrow, and it would make no measurable difference in global greenhouse gas emissions. When coordinated effort is required, it would seem that doing the “right thing” alone is irrational: it will harm oneself with no positive consequences as a result. Such is the tragedy. And that is the challenge that we take up here. Though Garrett Hardin suggests that the solution is a governmental process that rules over all contenders, since a world government seems unlikely before the planet hits the tippy point, we suggest an educational initiative instead: one that holds a mirror up to the behaviour of individuals, rather than to the behaviour of individuals in groups. Such an educational initiative would be focused on priming individuals to keep constant track of what they do as individuals as opposed to focusing on the behaviour of humanity in general. Such an educational initiative would focus on tackling the “problem solvers” rather than just “the problem”. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

Review

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16 pages, 326 KiB

Open AccessReview

Climate Change Inaction and Meaning

by Philip J. Wilson

Philosophies 2021, 6(4), 101; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6040101 - 07 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2431

Abstract

Continuing growth, insofar as it increases human environmental impact, is in conflict with the environment. ‘Green growth’, if it increases the absolute size of the economy, is an oxymoron. Environmental limits are discountenanced, a pretence made possible because they are difficult to specify in advance. The consequent weakness in public discourse, both moral and intellectual, has worsened into contradiction as it has become ever more studiously unadmitted. It is obscured with language that is misleading or self-contradictory, and even issues from institutions that exist (and are relied upon) to respect correctness. At its most conforming it gives rise to overshoot, by which statements meant to sound authoritative are in fact open to ridicule. Such untruthfulness perpetuates climate change inaction, and in a kind of direct action those using such language, contrary to their public or professional duty, could be asked to justify themselves in plain English. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

13 pages, 299 KiB

Open AccessReview

Climate Change Inaction and Post-Reality

by Philip J. Wilson

Philosophies 2021, 6(4), 80; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6040080 - 29 Sep 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2928

Abstract

Blame for climate change inaction is rarely directed at a fundamental cause, the excessive complexity of society. It has given rise to post-truth, which has been largely reduced to unflattering stereotypes of the public, and post-trust, by which the public see their national institutions as increasingly distant and ineffectual. The two comprise post-reality, by which confidence in the truth is weakened by distance from its source, a pervasive remoteness leads to a lack of accountability and indifference, and much scholarship and institutional practice is similarly prejudiced. A gross lack of proportion goes unnoticed in discourse that is innumerate, the more readily accepted by those (including many of those in public life) with a higher education that closes the mind to technical matters and thus to the seriousness of climate change. Regarding climate change inaction as an applied problem suggests a renewed emphasis on authentic public education and on activism outside the traditional ambit of scholarship. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

11 pages, 256 KiB

Open AccessReview

Climate Change Inaction and Optimism

by Philip J. Wilson

Philosophies 2021, 6(3), 61; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6030061 - 23 Jul 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 6226

Abstract

The problem of climate change inaction is sometimes said to be ‘wicked’, or essentially insoluble, and it has also been seen as a collective action problem, which is correct but inconsequential. In the absence of progress, much is made of various frailties of the public, hence the need for an optimistic tone in public discourse to overcome fatalism and encourage positive action. This argument is immaterial without meaningful action in the first place, and to favour what amounts to the suppression of truth over intellectual openness is in any case disreputable. ‘Optimism’ is also vexed in this context, often having been opposed to the sombre mood of environmentalists by advocates of economic growth. The greater mental impediments are ideological fantasy, which is blind to the contradictions in public discourse, and the misapprehension that if optimism is appropriate in one social or policy context it must be appropriate in others. Optimism, far from spurring climate change action, fosters inaction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

Other

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11 pages, 248 KiB

Open AccessConcept Paper

Transformational Creativity: The Link between Creativity, Wisdom, and the Solution of Global Problems

by Robert J. Sternberg

Philosophies 2021, 6(3), 75; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/philosophies6030075 - 08 Sep 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 6344

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of transformational creativity, which is creativity that is deployed to make a positive, meaningful, and potentially enduring difference to the world. Transformational creativity is compared to transactional creativity, which is creativity deployed in search of a reward, whether externally or internally generated. The article also discusses different kinds of transactional and transformational creativity. For example, some transactional creativity is inert, meaning that it never comes to fruition. Transformational creativity can be directed inward, outward, or both ways. The article also discusses pseudo-transformational creativity, which is offered by the creator as making the world a better place, when in fact its goal is to improve the lot of the person who is pseudo-transformationally creative. Many charismatic leaders are pseudo-transformational autocrats. It is concluded that, at this point in time, the world desperately needs the work of transformationally creative individuals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From the Acquisition of Knowledge to the Promotion of Wisdom)

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