To access the article describing the empirical research on wisdom (from 1980 to 2006), click on this link:
research. This link gives details on 37 empirical studies, plus 11 more for which I have not included details. As of March 2009, there have been at least 80 research studies involving wisdom, and include reports in German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Czech. Since I hope to publish an updated review of the empirical research soon--the article will be complete by the end of July 2009--further details await.
The fact that empirical psychologists have found any way to study wisdom seems a major advance: before 1980, there had never been an empirical study of wisdom published in a scholarly journal. Research to date has hardly revealed truths about wisdom that go beyond ancient and medieval texts. Nonetheless, if wisdom is to assume once again an important place in the lives of thoughtful people, empirical research will likely be vital to its revival. The
Defining Wisdom project of the University of Chicago, which in 2008 will be awarding 20 young researchers substantial grants for the study of wisdom, may well prove a watershed for wisdom's resurgence. Later, the University will be offering grants to a number of senior researchers into wisdom. It seems that with Positive Psychology, and the empirical study of spirituality, love, and wellness in a holistic sense, there is a shift occurring in Western sensibilities. In philosophy, virtue ethics is concerned with practical wisdom,
phronesis), and Bent Flyvbjerg (
Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001) has introduced a framework for phronetic social science.
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