Ep. 43 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Wisdom and Virtue

In this episode of "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis," John Vervaeke reviews previous discussions on rationality, Stanovich's theory of foolishness (dysrationalia), dual processing (S1 and S2), and the roles of active open-mindedness and mindfulness. He revisits the work of McGee and Barber, which identifies overcoming self-deception as central to wisdom. Vervaeke then analyzes Schwartz and Sharpe's work on practical wisdom, highlighting the relationship between wisdom and virtue, and the challenges of relevance, conflict, and specificity in applying virtues. He also critiques their view of Sophia and Phronesis, advocating for both in cultivating wisdom. Finally, he delves into the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm by Baltz and Staudinger, discussing their five criteria for wisdom and their experimental approach, while also offering his own criticisms, particularly regarding the concept of wisdom as expertise and the criterion of relativism of values.