Wisdom Talks

Wisdom, also known as sapience, is defined by psychologists as a combination of "wit and virtue," the ability to apply expert tacit and experiential knowledge, balancing intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional interests, to deal with complex questions of life and attain a common good. Wisdom can be viewed as a stable personality trait, but also as context-bound process, meaning that a person in some contexts behaves wisely, but in other contexts does not. Wisdom can also be viewed as influenced and determined by sociocultural norms and traditions. And wisdom can be viewed solely as wise behaviour, describing actions which lead to "an altruistic outcome by creatively and successfully solving problems."

Throughout history, wisdom has been regarded as a key virtue in religion and philosophy. Religiously, wisdom is an important element in the Biblical wisdom-tradition - often contrasting human knowledge with divine omniscience - which was further developed in Christianity and Islam. In Mahayana Buddhism, prajna (insight, "wisdom") is wedded to karuṇā, compassion, as icographically represented in yab-yum. Philosophically, wisdom has been explored by thinkers from Ancient Greece to modern times, with Greek (Plato) making a distinction between sophia, philosophical and contemplative wisdom regarding the divine order of existence; phronesis, practical wisdom; and episteme, formal or scientific knowledge.

Psychologists have researched wisdom since the late 1970s, starting with exploring folk conceptions of wisdom, and subsequently developing explicit-formal theories of wisdom. Theories that regard wisdom as a developmental cognitive and personal trait hark back to Erik Eriksons theory of stages of psychosocial development, and post-formal stages added to Jean Piagets theory of cognitive development. Explicit-formal theories include Robert J. Sternbergs Balance Theory of Wisdom, which explores the relation between intelligence, creativity, and wisdom, and sees wisdom as "the value-laden application of tacit knowledge to attain a common good"; and Paul Baltes' Berlin Wisdom Paradigm, which sees wisdom as a combination of "excellence in mind and virtue" and "an expert knowledge system dealing with the conduct and understanding of life." Psychological definitions include two common components, namely wit and virtue: an emphasis on cognition, meaning, and affect, and a concern for human welfare.

From wisdom on Wikipedia