From Slyness to Moral Wisdom in the Era of Emergent Technologies

Abstract

The first aim of this paper is to circumscribe the concept of wisdom from the standpoint of op­posite as well as close notions. The second one is to relate moral wisdom to social conditions; this as­pect emphasises two states of moral wisdom or, ra­ther, two levels on which the concept has been conceived: that of a fragmented and separated cognisance and manners to manage one’s own existence – whether this entity is an individual per­son or a small or large community – and that of an integrated wisdom of humanity in a holistic app­roach.
 The third aim of this research is to question if and how moral wisdom should be redefined in the present “Era of Emergent Technologies”. Indeed, the abundance of rapid scientific discoveries and of technologies unimaginable before generates great expectations and strong technophile beliefs concer­ning a spectacular and fundamental improvement of human life, generally, thus of every human per­son and community. But as we can see, it is not quite the case: just this incongruent situation allows, more, requires the re-questioning of the concept of moral wisdom nowadays. This re-ques­tioning shows that the different traditional repre­sentations of moral wisdom have to be transcen­ded and that on the theoretical level the urgency is to think within new categories and support a new type of human action adequate to the world global problems whose climbing demonstrates the back­wardness of moral wisdom.