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Practical Wisdom Colloquium Series
Between Rules and Practice: Why We Need Practical Wisdom in Politics
What moral skill and will do we need as citizens, professionals, parents and friends to know how to act in particular circumstances, especially when general rules and incentives are insufficient to guide us toward what is good or advantageous? Aristotle called this sort of moral know-how “practical wisdom” or phronesis. Recent research in the natural and social sciences has profound implications for practical wisdom. Findings from fields as diverse as evolutionary biology, social psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, education and political science provide an increasingly complex understanding of the human capacity (and the limits of that capacity) for empathy, judgment, problem solving, deliberation, and cooperation—all of which are ingredients of practical wisdom. The goal of the colloquium series “Between Rules and Practice” is not only to survey diverse fields of knowledge and bring them to bear on contemporary practices and institutions in democratic societies, but also to ask: Are good institutions enough? Should the university cultivate practical wisdom in citizens and leaders? For more information please contact Ann Cameron.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
David Olson, University Professor Emeritus at OISE/University of Toronto, and author of The World on Paper ...
Posted:Nov. 7, 2011, 10:15 a.m.
