Knowlegeable or Wise?

A couple of weeks ago I read an article in the Boston Globe about studying wisdom. Wisdom is not a word that you find frequently in psychology or sociology. A few brave souls have tried to operationalize the definition of wisdom and try to study it. The problem seems to be that no one has a good way of doing this.

Wisdom is not intelligence, is not knowledge, is not information. Values are involved in wisdom and in our modern world who can agree on values. It seems that everyone has their own values and who is to say that yours are better than mine? You can see the difficulty a researched might have in nailing down a definition that other can agree with.

It so happened that I recently read a chapter in Pilgrim Heart by Darryl Tippens on wisdom, a chapter I found quite insightful. Referring to the work of Yale psychologist Robert Sternberg who edited the book Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid, he notes that intelligence without linked to moral virtues can lead to disastrous behavior. He writes,

Sternberg observes that while IQ scores are rising about nine points per generation, people are not necessarily becoming wiser. Intelligence simply cannot be equated with wisdom, which entails qualities like compassion, honesty, and reciprocity, and the"golden rule" (charity towards all) (139).

Tippens also argues that one of the chief virtues necessary for wisdom is humility, a quality in our own culture that is not held up as a particularly important one. I keep reading article about the increase of narcissism in our own society, not a promising trend if you are interested in the increase of wisdom.