Science News

"We conceptualized wisdom as a set of reasoning strategies that may be applicable and beneficial across a large number of social conflicts. In other words, we defined wisdom not through the availability of static knowledge about a particular conflict and its solution but rather through the use of dynamic reasoning strategies that can be applied in various domains."

All the most fundamental institutions of a functioning society—healthcare, education, criminal justice, banking, politics– “do not work the way that they should.” Our carrots and sticks seem to miss the point, or make things worse. To resolve the problem one need only return to the ancient Greeks. “We need virtue,” he said. “A virtue that Aristotle referred to as ‘practical wisdom.’” It is very simple, really. Practical wisdom is “the will to do the right thing and the skill to figure out what the right thing is. “