It’s one of those weasel words, wisdom. It carries its own positive charge. If you say someone is wise – whatever else you may be saying about their intelligence, or their common-sense, or any other quality you might like to associate with the term – you’re praising them. It’s not just being smart: it’s making the judgement that the smartness is being used in a good way. Intelligence, we like to think, is easy enough, but wisdom is a much rarer beast.
There’s the other side to it, though. With such strong connotations, it’s no surprise that the term is open to abuse. Every half-baked alternative view offered up to our general post-Enlightenment world will loudly trumpet its wisdom – often enough ancient wisdom – which we in the West are sadly in danger of losing due to our over-reliance on science / materialism / left-brain thinking / whatever. The wisdom / intelligence dichotomy has become as much of a cliché as the image of some bearded oriental elder dispensing sage words in the gaps between the kung-fu action.
All of which thinking was prompted by this breathless review of “From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution for Science and the Humanities“, a book by philosopher Nicholas Maxwell:
Any philosopher or other person who seeks wisdom should read this book. Any educator who loves education–especially those in leadership positions–should read this book. Anyone who wants to understand an important source of modern human malaise should read this book. And anyone trying to figure out why, in a world that produces so many technical wonders, there is such an immense “wisdom gap” should read this book…
Far from wanting to critique Maxwell’s central thesis, I recommend that thoughtful readers carefully read and consider the book. In my view, the sooner relevant audiences read From Knowledge to Wisdom, the better for the 6.5-plus billion people who currently share Earth.
Now that’s a positive review.
And talking of positive reviews…you can check out all Maxwell’s books on Amazon. Each book has, to date, one review, and each of those reviews gives the title in question five stars. And each of those reviews is written by….Nicholas Maxwell.
I suppose with all the pseudonymous reviews that authors apparently write on Amazon in praise of their own work, it’s almost endearing to come across someone doing it so openly. Here’s what he has to say about his 2005 opus, “Is Science Neurotic?”:
Is Science Neurotic? calls for a scientific revolution. It shows decisively that science represses problematic assumptions concerning metaphysics, values and politics – assumptions that ought to be clearly acknowledged so that they can be thrown open to criticism, revision and improvement. The book argues that we need a new kind of science, and a new kind of academic inquiry having, as their basic aim, to help humanity learn how to become wiser and more civilized. Is Science Neurotic? has dramatic implications for natural science, for social science and the humanities, and for current debates about the human value and dangers of modern science.
The book begins with a discussion of the aims and methods of natural science, and moves on to discuss social science, philosophy, education, psychoanalytic theory and academic inquiry as a whole. It makes an original and compelling contribution, arguing that science would be of greater human value if it were more rigorous – we suffer not from too much scientific rationality, but too little. In a lively and accessible style, the book spells out a thesis of profound importance for the long-term future of humanity.
A thesis of profound importance for the long-term future of humanity. He’s certainly not selling himself short.
He published a brief article in the New Statesman recently to mark the publication of his book – or rather the re-publication: the original appeared in 1987. He also has his own website, From Knowledge to Wisdom. Here’s a brief summary of his ideas:
The crisis of our times is that we have science without wisdom. This is the crisis behind all the others. Population growth, the terrifyingly lethal character of modern war and terrorism, immense discrepancies of wealth across the globe, annihilation of indigenous people, cultures and languages, impending depletion of natural resources, destruction of tropical rain forests and other natural habitats, rapid mass extinction of species, pollution of sea, earth and air, thinning of the ozone layer, global warming – even the aids epidemic: all these relatively recent crises have been made possible by modern science and technology. Indeed, in a perfectly reasonable sense of “cause”, they have been CAUSED by modern science and technology. If by the cause of event E we mean that prior change which led to E occurring, then it is the advent of modern science and technology that has caused all these crises. It is not that people became greedier or more wicked in the 19th and 20th centuries; nor is it that the new economic system of capitalism is responsible, as some historians and economists would have us believe. The crucial factor is the creation and immense success of modern science and technology. This has led to modern medicine and hygiene, to population growth, to modern agriculture and industry, to world wide travel (which spreads diseases such as aids), and to the destructive might of the technology of modern war, conventional, chemical, biological, nuclear.
All this is to be expected. Successful science produces knowledge, which facilitates the development of technology, all of which enormously increases our power to act. It is to be expected that this power will often be used beneficially (as it has been used), to cure disease, feed people, and in general enhance the quality of human life. But it is also to be expected, in the absence of wisdom, that such an abrupt, massive increase in power will be used to cause harm, whether unintentionally, as in the case (initially at least) of environmental damage, or intentionally, as in war and terror. Before the advent of modern science, lack of wisdom did not matter too much; we lacked the means to do too much damage to ourselves and the planet. But now, in possession of unprecedented powers bequeathed to us by science, lack of wisdom has become a menace. The crucial question becomes: How can we learn to become wiser?
The answer is staring us in the face. In order to learn how to become wiser we need traditions and institutions of learning rationally designed to help us learn wisdom.
Brilliant! Why did no one think of this before? All we need is for everyone to be taught how to be wise. Then, because being wise is, by definition, a Good Thing, all our problems are over. Every decision will be a wise decision, and will, therefore, be the right decision.
But who, you may ask, is going to decide where wisdom lies? Who will tell the scientists where they may or may not go? Well, I imagine that this is where the philosophers come in, you see. Philosophers like, for instance, Nicholas Maxwell.
And if you thought wisdom might have something to do with humility – forget it. Nowadays it’s all about getting good reviews.
Mick Hartley 
Leave a reply to Alcuin Cancel reply