What is Wisdom?

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Wisdom as I understand it is a capacity for sound judgment with a view to pragmatic action.  Wise judgment is attuned to cognitive complexities in the world and to the ways in which historical and cultural contexts inform diverse systems of value.  Whatever their domain of action, wise practitioners evince high degrees of intellectual humility and empathy, together with a thoroughgoing commitment to fostering the well-being of both one’s self and one’s community.

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A.Ham in the Age of Trump

Make Hamilton Great Again cap, in the style of Make America Great Again
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Hamilton continues to resonate because it speaks, consistently and profoundly, to a deep hunger for wisdom in American society today.

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Reading Literature for a Wiser World

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Wise judgment is attuned to cognitive complexities in the world and to the ways in which historical and cultural contexts inform diverse systems of value.  Whatever their domain of action, wise practitioners evince high degrees of intellectual humility and empathy, together with a thoroughgoing commitment to fostering the well-being of both one’s self and one’s community.  

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Why Wisdom? Why Now?

Portions of this post first appeared in Inside Higher Ed and are reprinted here with permission

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“I am wiser than he is to this small extent that I do not think that I know what I do not know.”

Socrates, in Plato, The Apology of Socrates
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