Debating wisdom: There Can be No Psychology of Wisdom without Wisdom in Psychology

2023

The highest forms of adult development have been called as “reaching of wisdom”, as E.H. Erikson for example put it. There are, of course, many definitions of wisdom, and many approaches, methods, and disciplines to study it. In its attempt to define itself as a science, psychology seeks to rely upon empirical means to identify or operationalize core terms. For example, many wisdom researchers seek to define wisdom “empirically” by identifying qualities that everyday individuals use when they describe people who they consider to be “wise”. Drawing on such studies, researchers have suggested that wisdom can be understood in terms of qualities such as humility, empathy, compassion, socio-cogn…