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Relevance, Meaning and the Cognitive Science of Wisdom

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The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom

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Abstract

Wisdom involves the enhancement of cognition (broadly construed). Cognitive science is converging on the conclusion that the central process of cognition that makes us intelligent agents is the ability to realize relevance. Therefore, a powerful way to enhance cognition is to enhance the process of relevance realization. Yet intelligence, although necessary, is not sufficient for wisdom. This makes good sense because there is good evidence that intelligence is not sufficient for rationality. Rationality involves the recursive application of intelligence to the problem of using intelligence well. In a similar manner, wisdom is the recursive application of rationality to the problem of developing good use of rationality. Wisdom is a process whereby rationality transcends itself in a rational manner so as to greatly enhance our central abilities of relevance realization. In particular, people who engage in this development should have enhanced abilities of active open-mindedness, insight, self-regulation and perspectival knowing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Weisberg and Alba (1981) explicitly asked subjects to ‘go outside the box’ in an attempt to facilitate the solution of the problem. They found that this admonition had very little effect, sufficiently so that Weisberg and Alba called the very existence of insight into question. This undermines the cultural currency of the commonly used phrase; it has been empirically shown to not accomplish precisely what we seek to accomplish when we use it. Saying “be insightful” does not in fact provoke insight.

  2. 2.

    Note that here we are invoking a version of dual processing theory, as reviewed in Stanovich (2002).

  3. 3.

    We owe this idea to work currently being done with Greg Katsoras.

  4. 4.

    A distinction needs to be made here between temperament and style; historically, the concept of temperament in developmental psychology refers to some innate element of self or personality, which expresses itself in certain preferences and behaviours. In contrast, the term ‘style’ has usually referred to an acquired set of sensitivities and abilities. This can lead to some confusion, as ‘style’ can be taken to be equivalent to manner, which could be due either to innate temperament, learned style, or both. For the purposes of this chapter, ‘cognitive style’ specifically invokes the historical concept of an acquired suite of abilities and sensitivities.

  5. 5.

    This language of affordances and constraints is a hallmark of mathematical modeling within dynamical systems theory.

  6. 6.

    ‘Need for cognition’ refers to that quality in people of seeking mental challenge and learning opportunities.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Greg Katsoras for his help with the idea of perspectival knowing. We would like to thank Najam Tirimizi for his help with the idea of rationally self-transcending rationality. Finally, we would like to thank David Kim for his help in discussions of the role of wisdom in resolving internal conflict.

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  1. Cognitive Science Program, Department of Psychology, and Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health Program, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    John Vervaeke

  2. Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Leonardo Ferraro

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Correspondence to John Vervaeke .

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  1. OISE, Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Bloor Street West 252, Toronto, M5S 1V6, Ontario, Canada

    Michel Ferrari

  2. Ontario Inst. Studies in Education, Dept. Human Development &, University of Toronto, Bloor Street West 252, Toronto, M5S 1V6, Ontario, Canada

    Nicholas Weststrate

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Vervaeke, J., Ferraro, L. (2013). Relevance, Meaning and the Cognitive Science of Wisdom. In: Ferrari, M., Weststrate, N. (eds) The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9231-1_2

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