Recent Publications
Ecology of Wisdom: Writings by Arne Naess
A founder of the Deep Ecology Movement, Arne Naess' has produced articles on environmentalism that have provided unmatched inspiration for ecologists, philosophers, and activists worldwide. This collection amasses a definitive group of Naess'...
Psychosocial Development and Leader Performance of Military Officer Cadets
Efforts to educate and develop future military officers aim to produce highly competent, ethical and effective leaders to serve the nation. But while there is general agreement about desired outcomes, the underlying developmental processes associated...
Sages at the Games: Intellectual Displays and Dissemination of Wisdom in Ancient Greece
This paper explores the role the Panhellenic centers played in facilitating the circulation of wisdom in ancient Greece. It argues that there are substantial thematic overlaps among practitioners of wisdom (sigma omicron phi omicron l), who are typically...
The wisdom hierarchy: representations of the DIKW hierarchy
This paper revisits the data-information-knowledge- wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy by examining the articulation of the hierarchy in a number of widely read textbooks, and analysing their statements about the nature of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom...
Divine Wisdom and Dolorous Mysteries: Habsburg Marian Devotion in Two Motets from Monteverdi's 'Selva Morale et Spirituale' (Claudio Monteverdi)
Despite recent scholarly interest in Monteverdi's Selva morale et spirituale (1641), many aspects of this large, complex print remain enigmatic, and the intended context for much of the music in the collection has long been a matter of pure conjecture...
Social Intelligence, Human Intelligence and Niche Construction
This paper is about the evolution of hominin intelligence. I agree with defenders of the social intelligence hypothesis in thinking that externalist models of hominin intelligence are not plausible: such models cannot explain the unique cognition and...
Measuring the Character Strength of Wisdom
This study examined the psychosocial correlates and psychometric properties of the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) (Webster, 2003 a). Seventy-three men and 98 women ranging in age from 17-92 years (Mean age = 42.77) completed an expanded, 40-item version...
Pattern and Variable Approaches in Leadership Emergence and Effectiveness
This study examined variable and pattern approaches to studying the influence of individual differences on both leadership emergence and leader effectiveness. Emergent leaders were identified and then followed for 9 months of effectiveness data gathering...
A Systems Model of Leadership: WICS
This article reviews a systems model of leadership. According to the model, effective leadership is a synthesis of wisdom, creativity, and intelligence (WICS). It is in large part a decision about how to marshal and deploy these resources. One needs creativity...
Plumbing the Depths: A Recovery of Natural Law and Natural Wisdom in the Context of Debates About Evolutionary Purpose
Deane-Drummond argues that the theological traditions of natural law and wisdom offer helpful meeting points in discussions about evolutionary "purpose" and contingency in relation to theological purpose, and serve to form the basis for a theology...
Music in the Service of Counter-Reformation Politics: The Immaculate Conception at the Habsburg Court of Ferdinand III (1637-1657)
During the tumultuous final decade of the Thirty Years War, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III used music as an important tool to further his religious and political agendas. Using the political ramifications of the emperor's public devotion to...
Wonder and Wisdom: Conversations in Science, Spirituality and Theology
Contemporary debate suggests that religious belief defies 21st century science and knowledge. Yet in her new and thought-provoking book, Celia Deane-Drummond explores the twin themes of wonder and wisdom and examines their importance in tracing a spirituality...
Viewpoint: The Economics of Hunter-Gatherer Societies and the Evolution of Human Characteristics
We argue for attention to the evolutionary origins of economic behavior. Going beyond this, we argue that the economy of hunting and gathering was the context in which evolution shaped human characteristics that underlie modern economic behavior. We first...
Innovation in Wild Bornean Orangutans (Pongo Pygmaeus Wurmbii)
In most studies to date, innovations were studied if their origination was witnessed or if they arose in response to a pronounced environmental change, making it difficult to generalize. In this study, we use an operational definition developed by Ramsey...
What Cultural Primatology Can Tell Anthropologists About the Evolution of Culture
This review traces the development of the field of cultural primatology from its origins in Japan in the 1950s to the present. The field has experienced a number of theoretical and methodological influences from diverse fields, including comparative experimental...
Using the Concept of Wisdom to Enhance the Expression of Wisdom Knowledge: Not the Philosopher’s Dream but Differential Effects of Developmental Preparedness
In this study, the authors explored whether wisdom-related performance could be enhanced by an instruction referring to the abstract concept of wisdom ("try to give a wise response"). The authors used three levels of activation of the concept...
The Wisdom of Crowds
"No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." -H. L. Mencken H. L. Mencken was wrong. In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James...
Virtue and Psychology: Pursuing Excellence in Ordinary Practices
Virtue and Psychology: Pursuing Excellence in Ordinary Practices issues a clarion call for psychologists and other mental health professionals to recognize the reality of virtue in social interaction. Virtues are character strengths such as generosity...
The Wisdom Experience: Autobiographical Narratives Across Adulthood
This research uses an autobiographical approach to examine the relation of age to several aspects of wisdom. In Study 1 (N = 86), adolescents', young adults', and older adults' wisdom narratives were content-coded for the types of life situations...
Images of Bach in the Perspective of Basic Research and Interpretative Scholarship
Beginning with remarks on the complementary functions of basic research and interpretive scholarship, the first part of the essay focuses on varying concepts, of Bach images, discusses authentic and unauthentic Bach portraits as well as images of the...
WICS: A Model of Positive Educational Leadership Comprising Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized
Who are the people who become positive educational leaders? This essay presents WICS as a model of positive educational leadership. WICS stands for wisdom , intelligence, creativity, synthesized. Each of these elements is asserted to constitute one of...
Why Smart People Can Be So Foolish
Not only stupid people act foolishly: Smart people can act foolishly by virtue of their thinking they are too smart to do so. Such people tend to act foolishly through the commission of one or more of five cognitive fallacies: (1) unrealistic optimism...
Time, Story, and Wisdom: Emerging Themes in Narrative Gerontology
Narrative approaches in the field of aging are receiving increasing attention by theorists and practitioners alike. This article draws on recent thinking in narrative gerontology to look at three aspects of aging on which a narrative perspective can shed...
Making Things Better and Learning a Lesson: Experiencing Wisdom Across the Lifespan
Autobiographical memory narratives concerning times in which individuals said, thought, or did something wise were collected from adolescents and young and old adults. This "wisdom of experience" procedure is shown to be a valid means of studying...
The Two Faces of Wisdom: Wisdom as a General Theory of Knowledge and Judgment About Excellence in Mind and Virtue vs. Wisdom as Everyday Realization in People and Products
There are several legitimate ways of conceptualizing and studying wisdom . One is largely informed by Western philosophy and treats wisdom as an analytic theory of expert knowledge, judgment, and advice about difficult and uncertain matters of life. Another...
Correlates of Wisdom-related Performance in Adolescence and Adulthood: Age-related Differences in “Paths” Toward Desirable Development
Across time and cultures, wisdom has been nominated as the ideal endpoint of development. Evidence suggests that the beginnings of wisdom are observed in adolescence. But are the correlates of wisdom -related performance in adolescence different from...
Wisdom-related Knowledge: Affective, Motivational, and Interpersonal Correlates
This study investigated the connection between wisdom as a body of expert knowledge about the meaning and conduct of life and indicators of affective, motivational, and interpersonal functioning. Structural equation analyses showed that individuals higher...
Identifying and Assessing Tacit Knowledge: Understanding the Practical Intelligence of Military Leaders
Tacit knowledge (TK) is knowledge drawn from everyday experience that helps individuals to solve real-world, practical problems. This study applied a method for identifying and assessing TK to the domain of military leadership in order to understand why...
Empirical Assessment of a Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale
Although wisdom is thought to be a strong predictor for many attributes of aging well, the concept of wisdom still lacks a comprehensive, directly testable scale. Quantitative and qualitative interviews with a.sample of 180 older adults (age 52-plus)...
Nyansapo (The Wisdom Knot): Toward an African Philosophy of Education
This study examines the issues of indigenous philosophies, which are embedded in different aspects of socialization process among the Akan of Ghana. The research explores the possibility of forging a new future that builds on the positive aspects of their...
Reason and Human Finitude: In Praise of Practical Wisdom
Phronesis, or practical wisdom, is central to virtue ethics because choosing the best course of action cannot be reduced to an algorithm. Phronesis is the capacity to make wise decisions regarding which virtues are called for in particular circumstances...
A Model for Tool-Use Traditions in Primates: Implications for the Coevolution of Culture and Cognition
Inspired by the demonstration that tool-use variants among wild chimpanzees and orangutans qualify as traditions (or cultures), we developed a formal model to predict the incidence of these acquired specializations among wild primates and to examine the...
Innovation and Social Learning: Individual Variation and Brain Evolution
This paper reviews behavioural, neurological and cognitive correlates of innovation at the individual, population and species level, focusing on birds and primates. Innovation, new or modified learned behaviour not previously found in the population,...
The "Culture of Swing" as a "Double-Bottom" of Youthful Feeling of Life Under the Nazi Dictatorship
How was it possible during the Nazi dictatorship for a self-confident individual to avoid the cultural "Gleichschaltung" without turning completely towards one's own inside? Based on some reflections, certain psychological backgrounds will...
Wisdom from world religions: Pathways toward heaven on Earth.
Particularly suited for young people, this book brings spiritual laws to life through engaging stories and anecdotes. Wisdom from World Religions: Pathways toward Heaven on Earth is designed to offer people of all ages and all nations an opportunity to...
Wisdom: A Culturally Inclusive Developmental Perspective
This study examines cross-cultural age-related patterns of two modes of wisdom : the analytical (i.e., Knowledge Database, Abstract Reasoning), and the synthetic (i.e., Reflective Understanding, Emotional Empathy, and Emotional Regulation). A total of...
Seeds of Wisdom: Adolescents' Knowledge and Judgment About Difficult Life Problems
The present study examined adolescents' wisdom-related knowledge and judgment with a heterogeneous sample of 146 adolescents (ages 14-20 years) and a comparison sample of 58 young adults (ages 21-37 years). Participants responded to difficult and...
Why Schools Should Teach for Wisdom: The Balance Theory of Wisdom in Educational Settings
This article describes a balance theory of wisdom and applies the theory to the context of schooling. First, the article discusses why intelligence-related skills are an important, but not a sufficient, basis for education. Second, the article briefly...
Positive Psychology – An Introduction
A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless. The exclusive focus on pathology that has...
Wisdom: A Metaheuristic (Pragmatic) to Orchestrate Mind and Virtue Toward Excellence
The primary focus of this article is on the presentation of wisdom research conducted under the heading of the Berlin wisdom paradigm. Informed by a cultural-historical analysis, wisdom in this paradigm is defined as an expert knowledge system concerning...
Toward a Culturally Inclusive Understanding of Wisdom: Historical Roots in the East and West
To establish a clearer definition of wisdom as a psychological concept, Western and Eastern historical literatures were reviewed and assessed within a general analytical/synthetic framework. In the West, either in an ancient Egyptian, biblical, or philosophical...
The Concept of Wisdom: A Cross-cultural Comparison
To examine the meaning of wisdom cross-culturally American, Australian, Indian, and Japanese samples judged the similarity of seven personality descriptors: "aged," "awakened," "discreet," "experienced," "intuitive...
Mental Attention, Consciousness, and the Progressive Emergence of Wisdom
Mental-attentional mechanisms of consciousness, meditation, and the emergence of wisdom are discussed . A developmental (neo-Piagetian), dynamic flash-light model of mental attention is used. The initial stages of consciousness in infancy are modeled...
The Anthropology of Wisdom Literature
This unusual book examines definitions of the fable, apologue, parable, moral tale, etc. It then proposes the use of the term exemplum, used by medieval scribes, to define all types of wisdom narratives. It makes a cross-cultural structural analysis of...
Interactive Minds: Life-span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition
Various theoretical models in psychology have emphasized the social foundation of the mind and the role that social interactions play in human development. Interactive Minds emphasizes social transaction and communication between minds without implying...
Interactive Minds: Life-span Perspectives on the Social Foundation of Cognition
Various theoretical models in psychology have emphasized the social foundation of the mind and the role that social interactions play in human development. Interactive Minds emphasizes social transaction and communication between minds without implying...
Wisdom: Its Nature, Origins, and Development
This authoritative volume represents the only complete collection of psychological views on wisdom currently available. Considered an elusive psychological construct until recently, wisdom is currently attracting interest as an independent field. The...
Higher Stages of Human Development: Perspectives on Adult Growth
Can significant advances in development occur after adolescence? What are the highest possible states or stages of human development and how can they be realized? These and related critical issues are addressed in this volume by leading researchers and...