Defining Wisdom Grant Competition
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Two million dollars was recently awarded to a network 23 young scholars to study the nature and benefits of wisdom.
Advancing a New Interdisciplinary Study of Wisdom
John Cacioppo
Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology
Howard Nusbaum
Chair, Professor, Department of Psychology
Project Website
"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men," wrote the Chinese philosopher Confucius. If human societies recognize "wisdom," as a universally important concept, scholars within these societies have espoused a seemingly infinite number of theories about what it is and where it comes from. For example, in Western society, deep questions regarding the value of abstract, ideal systems as a source of wisdom versus sensual, empirical knowledge have divided thinkers throughout much of history. Despite this long tradition of seeking to define one of the concepts most dear to humankind, today one rarely hears the question "What is wisdom?" posed as a topic of serious research. Not so, here. Following an open competition, the University of Chicago recently funded twenty young scholars from around the globe in the pursuit of defining wisdom as a new scientific field of study.
The Defining Wisdom research initiative embraces the notion that there is something more to wisdom hiding within the diversity of its historical expression. Participating scholars study wisdom using rigorous cross-disciplinary research methodologies, drawing heavily from both the sciences and from traditional qualitative studies in the humanities. Projects under this initiative address such diverse questions as the extent to which concepts of wisdom have changed through time, whether ancient definitions of wisdom remain relevant to today's world, and investigations of the possible biological bases to wisdom. Some investigators are trying to measure wisdom by psychological testing coupled to fMRI or to demonstrate how wisdom might impact decision-making in medicine, business, and economics.
Taking on the fundamental question of whether human nature is a permanent or mutable category, the Defining Wisdom initiative has brought together scholars from extremely diverse fields, such as theology and biology. They hope that by returning to the classically important question of defining wisdom, either by its elements or as an emergent property of many elements together, we can learn to improve individual quality of life, reinvigorate studies in political ethics, and to develop more meaningful educational standards for the modern world.
For more information, please visit the website at:
http://www.wisdomresearch.org/
