Experiential Wisdom and Lifelong Learning

Abstract

This chapter explores the self-regulative concept of “experiential wisdom,” or the notion that creativity and lifelong learning are enhanced by the capacity to make experiential course corrections that lead to states of interest and flow experience. A person with experiential wisdom recognizes that these heightened states are more likely to occur when an affectively charged intuitive mode works in synchrony with a deliberative rational mode and is better able to cultivate situations where the interrelation of these two modes is optimized. The first part of this chapter provides a broad framework for thinking about experiential wisdom. It addresses implicit assumptions of the proposed model, the relationship of experiential wisdom to broader theories of human development, and the necessary conditions in childhood that facilitate the emergence of experiential wisdom in adulthood. The second part of this chapter explores in more detail the dynamics at work as a person negotiates a person–environment fit that is more conducive to optimal experience, namely, the flexible interoperation of spontaneous/intuitive and selective/rational modes of attention. Finally, part three of this chapter illustrates experiential wisdom by drawing on past interviews with three distinguished individuals—poet Mark Strand, social scientist Donald Campbell, and medical researcher Jonas Salk. It is argued that the experiential wisdom of these three helped keep them engaged on a path of creativity and lifelong learning.