Abstract Practical wisdom ( phronesis ) is the context-sensitive capacity to skillfully achieve morally good outcomes in complex situations. Developing artificial practical wisdom offers a more ethically robust and achievable goal for AI development than artificial general intelligence (AGI). While identifying what is morally good in ethically complex situations remains challenging, grounding artificial practical wisdom explicitly in compassion effectively reduces ethical risks associated with AI-induced suffering, surpassing conventional alignment strategies like rule-based guardrails or predefined reward systems. As a theoretical foundation for initial development of artificial practical wisdom, this virtue ethics approach integrates Aristotelian practical wisdom with cross-cultural perspectives on suffering and compassion from utilitarianism, the Capability Approach, Buddhism, and contemporary moral psychology. Operationalizing compassionate AI involves recognizing suffering, empathetic engagement, context-sensitive moral decision making, and motivational responses. Compassionate AI not only serves as a foundation for broader practical wisdom development but also demonstrates immediate practical benefits, particularly in healthcare, by measurably improving patient outcomes, enhancing well-being, and reducing caregiver burdens.

Practical wisdom for leading projects; The case of early warning signs

ABSTRACT This piece offers critical perspectives on social work education research, evaluation, and practice, emphasizing the importance of centering the lived experiences, practice wisdom, and expertise of historically marginalized voices—particularly Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color (BIWOC)—within predominantly white institutions (PWIs). The experience of two BIWOC scholars in the role of consultants for a social work program serves as backdrop to a critical analysis of initiatives in social work higher education looking to align with the integration of Anti-Racist, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in the 2022 EPAS. Grounded in the profession’s commitment to social justice, this piece emphasizes the imperative for institutional reflexivity and innovative pedagogical approaches in anti-racist curricular development and evaluation that challenge dominant knowledge systems through epistemic disobedience. We offer reflections, invitations and practical strategies on cultivating collaborative and engaged learning communities in times of institutional crisis via the Soulcial Work Praxis framework (SWP). SWP offers useful guideposts for students, educators, researchers, and practitioners dedicated to advancing liberatory teaching-learning methods within the context and constraints of a higher education system built on racial-settler colonial legacies and urgently grappling with the rise of neoliberal capitalism and fascism.

This study repositions hospitality as a moral virtue rather than merely an industry construct. Drawing on classical virtue ethics and positive psychology, it explores how the enactment of hospitality—through empathy, execution, and embrace—contributes to human flourishing. Central to this process is phronesis, or practical wisdom, which mediates the relationship between hospitality and flourishing. The research proposes two complementary pathways: a self-oriented path fostering contentment and self-connectedness, and an other-oriented path promoting prosocial behavior and civic engagement. By linking hospitality virtue to flourishing via phronesis, this study advances a holistic, ethically grounded framework for understanding hospitality's transformative potential.

The article examines institutional trajectories of social trust formation in China. According to the Chinese mod-el, the integration of technological innovations such as social credit and algorithmic governance has contribut-ed to the transformation of informal trust (guanxi) into formal institutions. The cultural factor deepens the diver-gence: Confucian collectivism legitimizes vertical trust in China. Digital transformation poses new challenges: China balances between the effectiveness of big data and the risks of authoritarianism. Almost the entire methodological basis of Chinese sociological views was formed on the basis of anti-performative attitudes towards Western concepts of the market. Another important conclusion is the understanding that economic de-cisions are based not on the postulates of Western textbooks, but on practical knowledge and wisdom based on the unique cultural soil of the Chinese “society of acquaintances”, which suggests the creation of indigenized theories in the sociology of the market. Chinese society, which is rapidly developing a market economy, still continues the tradition of “familiar society”, and the way of thinking and behavior of “familiar people with rela-tionships” dominates market behavior.

In Today Through the Lens of the Ancient Debate on the Value of Mētis, the author examines contemporary challenges to freedom of speech in art, science, and politics through the ancient Greek concept of mētis—practical wisdom enabling success in life. He argues that mētis, rooted in the common sense of non-experts, faces suppression by those in power, termed the “anointed,” amid growing censorship and moralistic polarization. Drawing on Greek drama, particularly tragedies like Antigone and Prometheus Bound, the author highlights the role of mētis in exploring human complexity and fostering moral reflection, supported by insights from neuroscience and philosophy. The text contrasts mētis with hybris—excessive pride—illustrating how drama avoids simplistic judgments, promoting epistemic humility. The author connects these ideas to modern issues, suggesting that the erosion of liberal values and the marginalization of practical knowledge threaten individual agency. He concludes that mētis, alongside the moderation of sōphrosynē, offers a counterbalance to authoritarian tendencies. This interdisciplinary study underscores drama’s enduring relevance as a tool for understanding ethical dilemmas and resisting the overreach of power, urging a renewed appreciation for experiential wisdom in today’s world.

The increasing prevalence of mental health concerns in the Philippines underscores the need for innovative strategies to support psychological well-being, particularly in contexts with limited access to clinical professionals. This qualitative case study explored the care practices of non-practicing mental health professionals and the factors influencing their decisions not to pursue clinical roles. Ten participants were purposively selected, all holding valid professional credentials and working in education, research, or community outreach. Information was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns in participants' experiences. Findings revealed two primary barriers to clinical practice: practical needs, such as financial responsibilities and family obligations, and career efficiency, which reflects the lengthy, resource-intensive pathways and limited incentives in the profession. Participants' care practices were captured in themes: Insightful Engagement, Ethical Reservation Establishment, Reverence for Choices, Practical Wisdom Application, and Compassionate Resonance. These themes illustrate how non-practicing professionals provide meaningful support through ethical guidance, relational presence, and contextual wisdom, extending care beyond formal clinical settings. Limitations include the small, context-specific sample, reliance on self-reported data, and exclusion of actively practicing professionals. Recommendations highlight the importance of institutional support, targeted training programs, integration of mental health literacy in educational curricula, and community-based initiatives to leverage non-practicing professionals' skills. This study contributes to understanding alternative pathways for promoting mental health, emphasizing the role of non-clinical professionals in bridging service gaps and fostering empathetic, ethical, and context-sensitive care.

ABSTRACT Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) is an educational approach that involves learners, educators, and external stakeholders collaboratively engaging with, investigating, and developing solutions to address real-life challenges. The use of CBL is growing in higher education and it is a novel pedagogy within the field of law and government. This article takes the form of a reflection from an academic who has been applying CBL within an MSc in Public Policy since 2020. It considers the impact of this approach through the lens of a multifaceted evidence grid that brings prior research, evaluation efforts, and practical wisdom to the fore. The reflection was created initially through engaging with an openly available, research-informed online tool for analysing the impact of educational initiatives. Lessons learned from the CBL teaching experience, relatively rarely discussed in the literature, are shared for the benefit of other educators who may be considering this approach.

This article examines the transformative journey of pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in family medicine and primary care through the lived experiences of four African scholar-practitioners. Using the Hero’s Journey framework, the authors reflect on the emotional, intellectual and structural aspects of doctoral education, highlighting the unique challenges faced by clinician-researchers in resource-limited settings. Each vignette illustrates the transition from dreaming to doing by navigating identity shifts, funding obstacles, methodological complexities, as well as the need to balance clinical service with academic development. The article offers practical insights for prospective doctoral degree candidates, including the importance of defining one’s purpose, building supportive networks, and adopting adaptable strategies. It also calls for institutional reforms to enhance supervisory capacity and funding mechanisms. By merging personal narratives with reflective analysis, the authors aim to inspire and equip future doctoral candidates in family medicine and primary care, encouraging them to view their journey not just as an academic endeavour but as a pathway to leadership, thereby strengthening the discipline’s knowledge foundation and enhancing primary care. This contribution serves as a guide for moving from aspiration to action, offering practical wisdom for navigating the complexities of doctoral education in African primary care contexts.

In order to call oneself a social worker in the United States, an individual must not only complete the required coursework and degree program, but also, in many states, pass a licensure exam. Recent discussion has centered around the efficacy of using an examination as a regulatory tool for licensure, particularly following the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) report identifying bias with the licensure exam itself, and indicating specific demographic characteristics including race, age, and English as a second language, as having an impact on the pass rate of test-takers (ASWB, 2022). This qualitative study specifically highlighted the experiences of 22 MSWs who were preparing for or had taken the licensure exam. Five themes emerged through an analysis of the data: meaning everything and nothing, hoops and barriers, emotional responses, learning the tricks, and setting aside practice wisdom. Our study reflects the ambivalence of new social workers toward the licensing exam and the disconnect between education and practice in what the test is actually measuring. Recommendations and implications for social work educators include advocating for a re-evaluation of social work licensure exams as proof of competence.

Practical Wisdom and the Character of Administrative Decisions The purpose of this paper is to show that, while judicial decisions might be productively examined through the lens of the virtue of justice, as an instance of proportionate allocation of goods and evils according to law, the same kind of assessment reveals very little about administrative decisions. The reason is that administrative decisions entail a different kind of reasoning, one that is primarily concerned with the assessment of reality. Administration is the realisation of the will of the (constitutional) State. It is what allows us to take the legal and political order and make something out of it, by transforming reality in a certain way – it is a bridge between the abstract order and the facts of the world as it is. I will argue that practical wisdom offers a useful template to examine administrative decisions, as it allows us to see how they entail the complex interaction between the ends of the State and the nuances of reality. Practical wisdom, after all, is wisdom in action, and combines an understanding of the abstract goals with the correct identification of what the particular circumstances of life require. It is thus the paradigmatic shape of administration in its ideal form.

Ethos and the Virtues of the Legal Professions According to the ‘thesis of continuity’ political stability in a liberal democratic society requires a sound ethos to work well. A legal ethos has special importance because of its public role in institutions. In a constructive mode I argue for the best model to inspire legal professionals’ conduct. I start by considering the shortcomings of professionals as they appear from deontological codes and sociological analysis but also as nourished by the ‘formal-legal rationality’, theorised by Max Weber. This leaves political institutions without an ethos and prey of capitalistic greed and ‘amorality’. As antidotes I propose to examine at least two models proposed by Dworkin (Hercules), Kronman (the lawyer-statesman) and, finally, the model of ‘the reasonable judge’ who combines three qualities that are central to any legal professional: craft, practical wisdom and rhetoric. Legal ethos can be revived if models of this kind become part of the legal educational curriculum.

Human intervention on earth’s macrosystem has ushered in the age of the Anthropocene, prompting introspection among humans. This epoch demands a reawakening of human conscience and inner motivation to shape the trajectory of the Anthropocene. Environmental virtue ethics claims that the fundamental cause of environmental crisis lies in humans themselves. This study adopts a textual analysis approach to examine emotions and actions exhibited by Codi Noline, the protagonist in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams. These traits are constitutive of making her environmentally virtuous, reflecting Kingsolver’s ethical contention as a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. This paper is informed by Ronald Sandler’s responsive virtues and productive virtues, which are, specifically, openness and courage. Additionally, originated by Aristotle, practical wisdom is employed to examine how courage better functions combined with practical wisdom. As a tentative practice in applying environmental virtue ethics to examine environmental virtues for the Anthropocene, this study reveals Kingsolver’s endeavor of setting environmental virtue exemplars from fictional characters to inspire humans’ long-term and stable contribution to a promising future.

Numerical approximation of fractional order HIV/AIDS model with treatment using Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation approach.

Under the National Education Strengthening Strategy, the development of “curriculum-based ideological and political education” in higher education has entered a deepening phase. However, event-related majors face challenges like forced ideological incorporation, weak value guidance in practice, and oversimplified evaluation. Using the provincial demonstration course Event Planning and Management as a case, and based on the OBE (Outcome-Based Education) concept, this study innovatively constructs an HCCR curriculum-based ideological and political education goal system, which includes four dimensions: Humanistic Sentiment (cultivating cultural identity and patriotism), Career Competence (strengthening professional standards and occupational responsibility), Creative Thinking (cultivating innovation awareness and practical wisdom), and Social Responsibility (shaping international perspectives and sustainable development views). In terms of teaching methods, it adopts a combination of PBL project-driven method and case teaching, and conducts 'ideological and political education into practice' activities through internships at international exhibitions such as the Canton Fair, extending ideological education from the university to the industry. At the same time, a dual evaluation mechanism for teachers and students is established. This study provides a systematic reform plan for the ideological and political education of applied professional courses, 'goal-oriented—diverse methods—dual evaluation', not only fulfills the requirements of the National Education Strengthening Strategy to "establish an education system guided by ideological and political principles", but also providing an effective path to solve the structural contradictions in the cultivation of talents in the exhibition industry.

ABSTRACT China initiated the new curriculum standard in 2022, a guiding text for everyday teaching practice in primary and junior secondary schools, posing unprecedented professional development challenges for rural teachers. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews within an online teacher reading group, this study explores the specific practices of middle leaders, their impact on teachers’ professional learning, and the underlying mechanisms. The findings highlight that middle leaders constructed a de-bureaucratised professional learning space and fostered teachers’ affective identification with ‘becoming an excellent teacher’ through diverse strategies such as group-making, task-driven learning, and manufacturing fictive kinship in-between. This demonstrates their situated practical wisdom while exposing the internal tensions between institutional fragility and leadership building. Thus, this paper argues that guanxi serves as part of the practice architecture, which is both methods and results of particular social-political arrangements in rural China.

Contemporary churches continue to wrestle with division, moral failures, spiritual elitism, and leadership scandals—struggles that mirror those faced by the first-century Corinthian church. This study examines how Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians offer enduring, practical wisdom for today’s ecclesial dilemmas. While much scholarship highlights Paul’s theology, fewer studies apply his counsel directly to modern crises such as church splits, abuse of spiritual gifts, or the collapse of trust in leaders. Using a qualitative historical-grammatical approach supported by biblical commentaries and concordances, this paper situates Paul’s message within its socio-cultural context and draws parallels for contemporary practice. The findings reveal four central contributions: unity in diversity as an antidote to factionalism, the equitable and orderly exercise of spiritual gifts, love as the supreme virtue for authentic community, and servant leadership as a safeguard against authoritarianism. These insights remain transferable across denominational lines and provide a framework for fostering healthier congregations. However, interpretive challenges persist, as modern contexts differ significantly from Corinth’s urban Greco-Roman world. Despite these limitations, Paul’s theology continues to speak powerfully into contexts of fragmentation and mistrust. This study contributes to scholarship by bridging the gap between Pauline exegesis and pastoral praxis, offering concrete, biblically grounded strategies for renewal in contemporary Christian communities.

Balancing technological innovation with social values remains an important, if understudied, topic for contemporary political theory. This paper explores the question of how clever but disruptive technologies like the gene-editing tool CRISPR can solve challenging technical problems while adhering to democratic values and governance. Like most tools, CRISPR can enhance human life or diminish it. We therefore need a way of distinguishing between virtuous and vicious technological goals. In short, we need to make CRISPR what I call a phronetic technology : a tool that is developed and deployed toward achieving the social good in ways consistent with democratic values. Honoring democratic values demands broad-based, ongoing public deliberation about how technological innovation contributes to social welfare. I turn to Aristotle to inform that deliberation. Aristotle's distinction between phronēsis (practical wisdom) and the related but problematic quality deinos (cleverness) usefully captures the difference between phronetic technologies and their merely clever alternatives. By showing how phronēsis both aligns cleverness with social values and encourages civic engagement on questions of technological development, I argue that Aristotle offers a middle path between reckless innovation and reactionary conservatism.

The emergency department (ED) serves as a safety net for individuals with limited access to primary care. ED nurses are often the first point of contact for those with few resources. Literature shows a link between social determinants of health (SDoH) and frequent ED use. This qualitative descriptive study explored ED nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and practices in addressing SDoH, aiming to better understand this issue and elevate nurses' voices. A qualitative descriptive design examined how ED nurses address SDoH and their related knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Eighteen ED nurses participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis yielded 45 codes, 17 categories, and six themes: practical wisdom, navigating barriers, integrated solutions, professional and ethical stewardship, time constraints and institutional influences, and educational empowerment. Results highlight the complexity of addressing SDoH in the ED and the need for more resources, education, and research on interventions and long-term outcomes.

Background: Research concerning the philosophy of character education has been largely inadequate and anticlimactic. Purpose: Informed by a combination of emergent, novel, and nontraditional techniques, the purpose of this study is to describe one elementary school physical education teacher’s efforts at employing character education. Method: The participant was Paris, a White, abled-bodied female with 41 years’ experience. Utilizing an exploratory case study design, data were collected with eight interpretive techniques and analyzed using thematic methods. Findings: Paris employed a “content-based approach” to teaching character education and taught the moral content of human flourishing, virtue, and practical wisdom via jump rope, rock climbing, and parachute-based physical education content. Her character pedagogies of affect were explicit and implicit in nature and shaped around the skills themes, multiskill, and multiactivity pedagogical models. The factors influencing Paris’ efforts were identified. Conclusion: This study contributes to the affective literature from a theoretical, methodological, and practical perspective.