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Teaching for Wisdom

Cross-cultural Perspectives on Fostering Wisdom

  • Book
  • © 2008

Overview

Editors:
  1. Michel Ferrari

    1. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada

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  2. Georges Potworowski

    1. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Emphasis of the book is on whether wisdom can be taught, not on what wisdom is
  • Practical and personally engaging look at how people at different times and places have engaged the question of how we can learn to live a good life
  • Gathers together a range of perspectives never before assembled within a single volume
  • Includes scientific, philosophical, and religious perspectives on wisdom usually considered separately

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIII
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  2. Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Introduction Sophia’s World: Episodes from the History of Wisdom

      • Trevor Curnow
      Pages 1-19

  3. Fostering Wisdom as Expertise

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21
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    2. Fostering Wisdom: A Psychological Perspective

      • Antje Stange, Ute Kunzmann
      Pages 23-36

    3. Teaching for Wisdom Through History: Infusing Wise Thinking Skills in the School Curriculum

      • Robert J. Sternberg, Linda Jarvin, Alina Reznitskaya
      Pages 37-57

    4. The Cultivation of Character Strengths

      • Nansook Park, Christopher Peterson
      Pages 59-77

    5. Wisdom in Elementary School

      • Richard Reeve, Richard Messina, Marlene Scardamalia
      Pages 79-92

    6. Master Zhu’s Wisdom

      • John Berthrong
      Pages 93-110

  4. Teaching for Wisdom as Personal Transformation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-111
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    2. Wisdom and Learning to Be Wise in Chinese Mahayana Buddhism

      • Vincent Shen
      Pages 113-133

    3. Beginner’s Mind: Paths to the Wisdom that is Not Learned

      • Eleanor Rosch
      Pages 135-162

    4. Ascending to Wisdom: A Christian Pedagogy

      • Pamela Bright
      Pages 163-176

  5. Learning from Wise People

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 177-178
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    2. The Wisdom of Plato’s Phaedo

      • David Roochnik
      Pages 179-188

    3. Can Wisdom Be Taught? Kant, Sage Philosophy, and Ethnographic Reflections from the Swahili Coast

      • Kai Kresse
      Pages 189-204

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 223-233
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Keywords

About this book

The chapters in this volume are all devoted to a single question: Can wisdom be taught, or at least fostered? They span many different traditions and times, which generates both problems and opportunities. The most obvious problem is that of translation. As Curnow points out in the opening chapter, the word ‘wisdom’ is used to translate a variety of terms from antiquity that have only a partial overlap with modern work. It is interesting to consider that the Egyptian word ‘seboyet’ translates as either wisdom or instruction. The same is true of terms from Buddhism or Confucianism, or even the Ancient Greek tradition acknowledged as a source of most current views of wisdom in the West; all the terms drawn from other languages and traditions have only partially overlapping meaning. With this in mind, each chapter can be read independently of the others. However, we have also arranged them in an order that re?ects common themes that emerge despite this diversity. We have not arranged them by geographical region, or historical time, but rather by the sort of educational strategy they advocate to foster wisdom. The ?rst chapter by Curnow provides a basic overview of approaches to teaching for wisdom in the West. This is already a very ambitious undertaking, spanning ancient EgyptandMespotamiatotherenaissanceandthedawnofthemodemworld, where the term wisdom has fallen largely out of fashion until very recently.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada

    Michel Ferrari

  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

    Georges Potworowski

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