Definition Of Wisdom Research Articles

From knowledge to wisdom: will wisdom management replace knowledge management?

PurposeThis conceptual paper aims to contribute to the knowledge management (KM) literature by seeking to determine whether wisdom management (WM) will replace KM in future.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory paper follows the interpretivist research philosophy and the deductive approach. The data collection is based on selected literatures from three disciplines (KM, philosophy and psychology). The findings were qualitatively analysed.FindingsThe findings are threefold: (1) the discussion of wisdom has been either neglected or superficially discussed in the KM literature; (2) despite the fact that wisdom is widely discussed and researched in philosophy and psychology disciplines, there is no commonly agreed upon definition of wisdom, and a dichotomy exists between the implicit and explicit theories of wisdom; (3) wisdom research in philosophy and psychology disciplines provides valuable input to KM by identifying the dimensions, components and characteristics of wisdom and wise individuals.Research limitations/implicationsImportant sources may have been unintentionally overlooked in this paper. This paper identifies the need for empirical research and discussion about WM as the next potential phase of KM. It offers several implications for researchers, managers and management educators as this paper shows that WM is emerging as a new discipline.Originality/valueThis paper makes a theoretical contribution to the fifth phase of KM by drawing attention to wisdom and WM as the next potential phase of KM.

The Concept of Wisdom from an Islamic Perspective

This study aimed to reach a definition of the concept of wisdom from an Islamic perspective by reviewing the Qur’anic verses and hadiths, the Islamic heritage in early centuries, and discussing the opinions of Muslim scholars who studied wisdom, its meanings and related concepts. To achieve this purpose, an inductive approach to data collection was followed to arrive at a comprehensive definition that helps in reaching its translation into programs to develop wisdom in individuals. The study concluded with a definition of wisdom according to the Islamic perspective and a theoretical model that defines the components of wisdom. The study also recommended that researchers and educationalists have to pay more attention to this topic and strive to develop wisdom programs through the educational curriculum.

The Concept of Wisdom from an Islamic Perspective

This study aimed to reach a definition of the concept of wisdom from an Islamic perspective by reviewing the Qur’anic verses and hadiths, the Islamic heritage in early centuries, and discussing the opinions of Muslim scholars who studied wisdom, its meanings and related concepts. To achieve this purpose, an inductive approach to data collection was followed to arrive at a comprehensive definition that helps in reaching its translation into programs to develop wisdom in individuals. The study concluded with a definition of wisdom according to the Islamic perspective and a theoretical model that defines the components of wisdom. The study also recommended that researchers and educationalists have to pay more attention to this topic and strive to develop wisdom programs through the educational curriculum.

A Polyhedron Model of Wisdom: A Systematic Review of the Wisdom Studies in Psychology, Management and Leadership, and Education

ABSTRACT No consensus on a definition of wisdom exists. Hence, 50 articles were systematically reviewed from the fields of psychology, management and leadership, and education to examine points of consensus among conceptions of wisdom. These articles were limited to the most cited peer-reviewed articles published between 2006 and 2018 that include wisdom in the title and key words. Based on the review, the Polyhedron Model of Wisdom was developed with components that characterize wisdom including knowledge management, self-regulation, altruism and moral maturity, openness and tolerance, sound judgment and decision making, intelligence and creative thinking, and dynamic balance and synthesis translated into action. This study is a step toward defining wisdom components upon which strategies to foster wisdom could be built. In the future, researchers should investigate ways of fostering wisdom through enhancing components of wisdom.

Panegyric praise of for Yoasaf Krokovskyi

The author analyzes a long and complex panegyric poem dedicated to Yoasaf Krokovskyi, a key figure in Ukrainian cultural life and Orthodox Church of the late 17th — early 18th centuries (he was elevated to the three prominent Orthodox ecclesiastical posts in the Hetmanate: rector of the Kyiv Mohyla Collegium, archimandrite of the Kyivan Cave Monastery, and metropolitan). The poem was written in 1699 when Krokovskyi held the post of the Kyivan Cave Monastery archimandrite. Since the main goal of poetry at the time was contributing to the education of pious men and loyal subjects, panegyric poetry was one of the principal genres of Mohylanian poetics. Indeed, the best way to achieve this goal was to represent exemplary human actions that would constitute models worthy of emulation. The didactic function of praise was all the more effective when the characters being praised were familiar to the students. The analyzed poem is found in the 1699 manual of poetics “Hymettus extra Atticam”, whose author was Yosyf Turoboiskyi, a Mohylanian professor who steadily entered the history of Russian culture due to his celebratory works in honor of Peter I, while in Ukrainian literature he is almost unknown. The central theme of the analyzed poem, written on the occasion of Krokovskyi’s birthday, is a virtue of the addressee and wisdom that inspires him. These themes reveal, on one side, the author’s intention to insert the personality of archimandrite and future metropolitan into what N. Pylypiuk saw as a project, initiated in the 1690s, of portraying Mazepa and Yasynskyi with visual and textual means as protectors and benefactors of Wisdom’s abode, that is the Collegium and St. Sophia. On the other, they reflect the idea of wisdom as it was characterized by the Renaissance; it is mirrored in the Erasmian definition of wisdom as “virtus cum eruditione liberali conjuncta”. This fact, expanding the topic of epic poetry to all activities related to the intellect, reflects the Renaissance approach to the ‘heroicum carmen’ and testifies to the influence of Humanism and Renaissance on the Ukrainian literature.

Effects of Causal Attribution and Implicit Mind-Set on Wisdom Development.

This study investigates the relationship between motivation and the development of wisdom. Eighty Canadian participants were interviewed and completed Ardelt's Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS). Using a mixed method design, we assessed wisdom definitions, interpersonal causal attributions, and mind-set about developing wisdom. A chi-square analysis revealed a significant relationship between attribution and mind-set about wisdom development. Two multivariate analyses of variance showed that both factors significantly influenced wisdom scores on the 3D-WS. These results suggest that people who consider wisdom development to be controllable and believe that their personal wisdom can be developed (i.e., growth mind-set) tend to be wiser, regardless of their definition of wisdom. By introducing the importance of mind-set and attribution, this study will open new avenues for research on teaching for wisdom and allow educators to develop programs to cultivate wisdom that focus on altering attribution and mind-set.

Tracing Sapiential Traditions in Ancient Judaism. Edited by Hindy Najman, Jean-Sébastien Rey, and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar

This volume covers traditions and articulations of Jewish wisdom from the Hebrew Bible through to late antiquity and the Middle Ages. The authors reflect on wisdom as a valid though imposed and sometimes limiting category. Concentration is on the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple, and finally rabbinic systems of wisdom and knowledge. The volume seems to focus on terminological and literary challenges (What is wisdom?), on the grouping or sub-grouping of texts within the sphere of wisdom, or wisdom-like (Is this or that text a wisdom text?), and focuses particularly on the transmission, continuity, and development of different aspects of form, context, and content (How is wisdom expressed over the centuries?). The first essay, ‘Is “Wisdom Literature” a Useful Category?’ by Stuart Weeks, explores the history of modern scholarship on ‘wisdom’ in the Hebrew Bible and how its residual echoes remain as methodological problems today. Weeks shows how eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scholars framed early debates and definitions of wisdom through searches for coherence and shared features in content and form, rather than context and purpose, as well as limited/limiting notions of education in ancient Israel. James Kugel, ‘The Theme of Long-Range Planning in the Joseph Narrative and Some Second Temple Period Writings’, compares elements of wisdom, specifically divine long-range planning, in the Joseph narrative (Genesis 37; 39–48, e.g. Gen 50:20) with similar glimpses of divine chronological certitude in Daniel, 1 Enoch, 4 Ezra, the Slavonic ‘Ladder of Jacob’, Ages of Creation (4Q180), and Jubilees. Next, Stéphanie Anthonioz (‘A Reflection on the Nature of Wisdom: From Psalm 1 to Mesopotamian Traditions’) considers the sapiential motif in Psalm 1 of tree metaphor (Ps. 1:3), observing that the wisdom motifs and didactic language in Psalm 1 witness to dynamic streams of tradition in ancient Israel that are also characteristic of ancient Near Eastern iconography and literature—namely, Gilgamesh.

Philosophy

I start this review, which focuses for the most part on publications on Hellenistic philosophy, with a survey of some recent studies on Stoicism. René Brouwer's The Stoic Sage introduces itself as ‘an attempt to bring the early Stoic notions of the sage and wisdom to the fore again’ (1). ‘Again’ alludes to the fact that those notions, which attracted considerable philosophical and scholarly interest at various stages since antiquity, have not received sufficient attention in recent times (specialists in the area will judge the merits of this assessment). The book is divided into four chapters, dealing respectively with the Stoic definitions of wisdom; the ancient puzzles surrounding the nature and very possibility of the change from ‘folly’ to ‘wisdom’; the controversial question of whether the Stoics themselves believed they had achieved the ideal of perfect wisdom; and the intellectual, Socratic background against which the Stoics developed their notion of wisdom. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 contain, in expanded and revised form, material published by Brouwer in self-contained essays between 2002 and 2008. Chapter 1, with its analysis of the Stoic definitions of wisdom as ‘knowledge of human and divine matters’ and ‘fitting expertise’, is fundamental to set the stage for the more focused inquiries of the rest of the book. From this point of view, it succeeds only partially. It helpfully covers a reasonable amount of ground, but because of Brouwer's choice to focus exclusively on the Stoic definitions of wisdom (sophia) at this stage, and not, say, on the descriptions of the Stoic wise man (sophos: Brouwer's preferred translation ‘sage’ hides the etymological connection), it also problematically leaves some fundamental aspects untouched. I was especially surprised not to see the key notion of infallibility discussed at all in this context, despite the fact that Brouwer correctly clarifies that Stoic wisdom is not to be interpreted as a form of omniscience (33–4). This ultimately springs from an insufficiently detailed analysis of the Stoics’ notions of katalēpsis (which Brouwer translates as ‘cognition’, without ever explaining its distinctive status), and then, in turn, of epistēmē and technē, and their Stoic definitions (see also the puzzling reference to ‘weak cognitions’ on p. 62). (I only note here that Paolo Togni's 2010 monograph Conoscenza e virtù nella dialettica stoica examines much more extensively and systematically the psychological and epistemological ground which needs to be covered by a discussion of Stoic sophia.) The attempt to map exhaustively the three key terms of the first definition – knowledge, human and divine – into the three parts of Stoic philosophy, respectively logic, ethics, and physics, is ingenious but too crude and ultimately unconvincing, since logic had for the Stoics its own separate subject matter (not to be identified with ‘human and divine matters’, and not even with knowledge itself, pace Brouwer), and ethics and physics can themselves be described as forms of knowledge. The interconnected nature of Stoic philosophy, which is helpfully emphasized throughout the book, need not be mirrored in the very definition of wisdom. From a broader methodological point of view, the attempt to reconstruct an early Stoic theory of wisdom constantly clashes with the nature of our evidence, and although in several cases Brouwer does carefully justify why a certain late source can be taken to bear witness to such an early theory, in other cases the reader is left to wonder whether such a justification could be given (for example, in the case of some passages from Seneca). There is still much worth pondering in Brouwer's insightful analyses in Chapters 2–4, although one is left to wonder how much added value has been generated by integrating this previously published material into a single monograph.

Exploring wisdom in relationship with coping styles, social desirability, subjective well being, age and gender

In the past few years Wisdom has been upcoming area of research in the field of psychology. The west has shared some interesting work on wisdom and its correlates, development, variables contributing to wisdom, and many other wisdom related life skills. To the best of the author's knowledge, the concept of wisdom as a psychological construct hasn't been taken up extensively as a part of research in India. Despite the blessings of abundant spiritual and religious knowledge found in our Ancient Indian texts (Vedas, The Gita, Guru Granth Sahib ji, etc.), there hasn't been much work on characteristics of wise people and wisdom in everyday life. There is also a need to see if the work done in the west finds similar results in the Asian context and how significant are the cultural differences.In this study, a brief overview will be given of how wise people cope? Is there any gender difference in wisdom? Does wisdom necessarily increase with age? Do wise people have the need to impress others? Are wise people able to accept the negative side of their personality (self deception)? Are wise people happier? All of this has been answered using standardized self report measures and statistical analysis.Over the past two decades many definitions of wisdom have been proposed. Surprisingly, the construct of wisdom is such that it is difficult to arrive at one specific definition. Many people confuse wisdom with intelligence, creativity, moral reasoning and knowledge. Here a few of the many differences between the above mentioned constructs will be discussed based on Robert J Sternberg's work (Sternberg, 1990). According to Sternberg, wisdom, creativity and intelligence are the same. What makes them different is their use. Difference between Wisdom, Intelligence and Creativity: A wise person gets into in depth clarity seeking by focusing on the question of why. He/she doesn't rely on automatic assumptions. Whereas, intelligent person looks for automatic solutions and routines which help him solve a problem faster. A creative person has no interest in thewhy of what he does. He's interested in exploring new things which carry element of originality or uniqueness. Furthermore, intelligence is the discovery of new truths and wisdom is understanding the depth of the existing ones (Ardelt, 2008). Secondly, a wise person is capable of comfortably accepting the contradictions, uncertainties and ambiguities in life. They know that they don't know it all. An intelligent person would like to solve the ambiguity. He can tolerate the uncertainty of life only if he is both wise and intelligent. A creative person tolerates ambiguity with discomfort (Sternberg, 1990).Difference between Wisdom and Moral Reasoning: Whereas, moral reasoning is limited to matters of justice and fairness, wisdom involves judgments and insights about issues that are not only of moral concerns but other than moral concerns as well. Some problem situations require practical solutions instead of moral solutions. Moral reasoning involves looking at one aspect like justice, fairness and care. Wisdom on the other hand involves taking into account multiple aspects other than just the moral aspect. Therefore, wisdom is broader and all entailing.Difference between Wisdom and Knowledge: Knowledgeable people are not necessarily humble if they are under the illusion that they know. Humility and transcendence of self are qualities of the wise. Thus, knowledgeable can be prone to superiority and excessive ego which the wise are capable of controlling (Ardelt, 2008).Definitions of Wisdom: While some researchers focus on the as a feature of wisdom, a few focus on acceptance of limitations of knowledge as a quality of the wise and some focus on integration of cognitive, reflective and affective aspects of life as wise. Meacham (1990) defines wisdom as awareness of not knowing everything in life. Baltes and Smith (1993) define wisdom as an expertise in the domain of fundamental pragmatics of life, such as life planning and life review. …

Professional Wisdom and Writing for Publication: Qualitative Interviews with Editors and Authors in Early Childhood Education

College and university faculty members specializing in early childhood education face some unique challenges in scholarly writing. The purpose of this research was to use open-ended interviews as a way to gather the collective wisdom of a group of key informants about academic writing and publishing in the field. Twenty-two editors and/or authors, ranging from vastly experienced to beginners, shared their insights on scholarly writing by discussing the purposes, strategies, and challenges associated with contributing to the early childhood education through their published work. Data analysis of the interview transcripts resulted in a remarkably consistent theme across all interviewees; namely, that a commitment to young children was the governing principle and that published manuscripts must have practical significance in order to advance the field. A verbatim transcript of all 22 interviews was read, re-read, and annotated to produce emergent themes. Excerpts from the interviews were then collected into case nodes using NVivo10 qualitative data analysis software. Data were clustered into five themes. Sternberg’s (Beyond IQ: a triarchic theory of human intelligence. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1985, The triarchic mind: a new theory of human intelligence. Viking, New York 1988) theory of intelligence and his definition of wisdom (2004) also were used as preset categories for data analysis. Collectively, the intelligence and wisdom of these accomplished professionals offers guidance to aspiring authors to become involved in writing, editing, and publishing academic work and serves as a tool for further reflection among experienced authors in the field of early childhood education.

Waiting for Sophia: 30 Years of Conceptualizing Wisdom in Empirical Psychology

In response to a proposed definition of wisdom that integrated sophia and phronesis, this article reviews the constructs of wisdom in the psychological literature in regard to their inclusion of both. The author found about one fourth of the 41 models examined to contain reference to aspects of sophia. He discusses elements of sophia in the global wisdom tradition, and makes the argument that two aspects of sophia must be included in a comprehensive definition of wisdom: (a) the perspective of the self-transcendent unity of being and (b) intuitive knowing of reality.

Measuring the Character Strength of Wisdom

This study examined the psychosocial correlates and psychometric properties of the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS). Seventy-three men and 98 women ranging in age from 17-92 years (Mean age = 42.77) completed an expanded, 40-item version of the SAWS, the Loyola Generativity Scale, and the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale. A new definition of wisdom is provided which is operationalized with the SAWS. Results indicated that the SAWS has excellent reliability (test-retest = .838; Cronbach's Alpha = .904). Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor analyses confirmed the five hypothesized dimensions of wisdom and the total SAWS score correlated in predicted directions with generativity (r(169) = .448; p < .01) and attachment avoidance (r(169) = -.239, p < .01) demonstrating construct validity.

Theologie und (Post)modernität. Philosophische Fragen zu Oswald Bayers Luther-Buch.

The focus of this article is to raise some philosophical questions concerning Bayer's aim of making topical the theology of Luther. The involvement of philosophy offers both opportunities and risks for theology. On the one hand, philosophy can mediate between a religious or theological vocabulary and contemporary secular society; on the other, however, theology runs the risk of being affected by the inner-worldly categories of philosophy. The latter position seems to be the one of Bayer since he defines the relation between philosophy and theology as a discordant one. In order to examine if and how philosophy can serve as a mediator between religion and secular society, I concentrate on a common characteristic of theology and philosophy, viz. that they query all kinds of traditional wisdom in order to offer true, theologically or philosophically corroborated wisdom. First, I analyse Bayer's idea of theology as personal, traditional wisdom. He develops it through a confrontation with Kant's critical assessment of wisdom in his Critique of Practical Reason, according to which science is the only narrow entrance gate that leads to wisdom. According to Bayer, the entrance fee is far too high, since is implies an imoverishing reduction of theology to (objective) science. Instead, he understands theological wisdom as meta-criticism, standing in the middle between dogmatism and scepticism. In my comment on Bayer's position, I start from the definition of wisdom as a kind of knowledge, helping humans to find the true destiny of their lives. However, in our post-modern times, the plausibility of the truth-claim implied in this definition is being challenged. All our vocabularies about the destinies of our lives, be they religious, theological, or philosophical, are perceived as radically contingent and equivocal. Consequently, wisdom has become a private opinion of a person or a group of like-minded people. Although I agree with Bayer's critique of the privatisation of wisdom, his argument in favour of a theological wisdom which claims to be above any suspicion of being ideological in character because of God's personal address, seems highly problematic to me. Although religion has an enormous critical potential with regard to the ideologies of our times, it does not convince contemporary, secularised people, because they perceive religion itself as a form of ideology. Therefore, I propose, with the help of Kant's, What Does it Mean to Orientate Oneself in Thinking, another approach of the necessary critique of religious wisdom, which is based on the concept of reason, as distinct from science. This leads to a less discordant view of the relationship between philosophy and theology than Bayer's.

Wisdom, Snake Oil, and the Educational Marketplace

Sternberg offers a provocative argument for teaching wisdom in schools. His unique version of wisdom, however, is based on research with adults with no evidence about the benefits of this approach for children in various grades and subject areas. Although he claims that wisdom cannot be taught explicitly, he argues to include wisdom in the educational curriculum. Sternberg's definition of wisdom is sweeping and vague; the dynamics of how multiple forces are balanced in the service of the "common good" are speculative; and the proposal ignores how curricula are adopted in the schools. Wisdom might be a fundamental pedagogical goal for teachers and students, but this brand is more conjecture than demonstrated benefit.

The Development of Wisdom: An Analysis of Tibetan Buddhist Experience

This article presents a qualitative study that examined the development of wisdom in a Tibetan Buddhist culture. A grounded theory methodology was used to analyze interviews of 13 monks from a monastery in the Himalayan region of India. These interviews focused on five areas: definitions of wisdom, facilitative conditions for the development of wisdom, the teaching process, methods of developing wisdom, and personal experiences. Translators were used when required. Results include an emphasis on the need for others’ guidance in the process of development. The understanding of the Buddhist perception of reality and altruistic behavior were critical in this process. Motivation to become wise was heightened through techniques such as an interpersonal process of cost-benefit analysis and the relating of scriptural material to personal experiences. The Tibetan Buddhist approach to self-development is then discussed in relation to Western psychological approaches.

Fielding's Definition of Wisdom: Some Functions of Ambiguity and Emblem in Tom Jones

To alter the terms of his own simile for the ancient authors, Fielding's novels may be considered as a rich common, where every critic has a free right to fatten his bibliography. As the number of commentaries in recent years attests, Tom Jones offers an ample field for critical investigation, with many aspects requiring a variety of approaches. At present I wish to explore only two of these: the substance and the form of the novel's most important theme, the definition of Wisdom. In dedicating the book to Lyttelton, Fielding himself provides the clue both to his moral purpose in Tom Jones and (in part at least) to his method of implementing that purpose. He declares

Nicholas of Cusa's Idea of Wisdom

Like the Preacher, son of David, Nicholas of Cusa knew that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness and he gave his heart to search it out. In phrases reminiscent of the classical definition of philosophy, the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, and medieval venery, he pictured his intellectual life as a venatio sapientiae and himself as a keen and pious hunter. Virtually all his important philosophical and theological works, from the De docta ignorantia of 1440 to the De venatione sapientiae of 1463, document the chase. Wisdom is the principal subject of the dialogues Idiota de sapientia. And when the Pseudo-Petrarch incorporated most of the first of these two dialogues in his De vera sapientia (put together around 1470 and printed in all the collected editions of Petrarch's works), his definition of wisdom was given added publicity and authority.