Complexity Science and the Nature of Wisdom

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Perspectives on Complexity in Education

Abstract

Wisdom, considered the highest level of enlightenment, has not had a foothold in education since Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum. While there are historical reasons for its obsolescence, contradictory models on the content of wisdom and the lack of teachable models have exacerbated the problem. A synthesis of the nature of wisdom from the philosophical, theological, and empirical traditions has revealed amazing similarities to the nature of all complex adaptive systems. This paper synthesizes the empirical models of wisdom with complexity science to provide a meta-perspective on the nature of general wisdom. The paper concludes with a cogent justification and model for complexity science to be a “go-to” framework for equipping people with a wisdom on wisdom.

Author

• John R. Shoup, Dr. Paul & Annie Kienel Leadership Institute