Articles about Wisdom
Our current lead article on wisdom isSome Ways We Can Be Wise by Tom Atlee Wisdom involves extending our seeing beyond the appearances of life, while also looking deeply into life. We are wise -- at least to some degree -- whenever we extend our seeing from any small perspective into a larger or deeper perspective. This expansion of perspective takes us closer to encountering the Whole of life. Even though that Whole can never be experienced in its full scope and detail, any motion in its direction is a motion into wisdom. Other articles include:Some Characteristics of Wisdom which elaborates each of the following statements:
Sources of Wisdom names and explains each of the following as sources of wisdom:
Excerpt from Wisdom and Wholeness: A person or culture is wise to the extent that they comprehend, value and support life's wholeness -- in any or all of its manifestations. They also tend to embody or exemplify that wholeness in various ways, and their engagement with life arises from that sense of wholeness or is experienced by them and others as an expression of it. Excerpt from Generating Wisdom through Democratic Process: Democratic wisdom emerges from creative interaction among diverse parties and perspectives, in co-creative service to the common good. To some extent it emerges naturally, as the compelling presence of diversity stretches people's perspectives to be more inclusive. History is filled with democratic follies and catastrophes -- and with wisdom that has little impact on the lives of ordinary people and the fate of civilizations. We need to midwife a coming together of democracy and wisdom. We need a democracy capable of generating wisdom grounded in the lives and perspectives of ordinary people and fully usable by them, which can simultaneously provide guidance on technical, obscure public issues that could make or break our survival as a species. Excerpt from Empowered Dialogue Can Bring Wisdom to Democracy: Diversity is a resource for wisdom, for expanded perspective, as long as it is engaged in generative dialogue... It is the combination of relevant, adequate diversity and generative dialogue that creates the wisdom. When people come together like that, they find powerful, insightful common ground.... [This is because] deep within each of us is perhaps our most potent source of wisdom, individually and together. There, at the core of our being, lie our common spirit, our common life, and our common humanity, resonating together in the symphony of our interconnectedness. I call this deep part of ourselves our core commons -- the ground of being that we all share.... True dialogue... pulls us down into our core commons where interconnectedness is waiting for us.... What can be wise - or foolish identifies the following as potentially manifesting wisdom:
Using Synergy, Diversity and Wholeness to Create a Wisdom Culture This article describes the theory underlying holistic politics. It explores the "more than" in the common phrase "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" -- especially analyzing different types of synergy and the ways in which the whole and part embody, contain or connect with each other. The resulting lessons are explicitly applied to the challenge of evoking the wisdom of the whole on behalf of the whole. January 2002 "Wisdom Society" Survey Results Tom Atlee did a survey of transformational thinkers involved with a vision that some people have been calling "a wisdom culture." Twenty-one respondents shared their ideas about the nature of such a culture and also their understandings of wisdom, itself, and its social role. Their responses were published in the article linked above. Atlee's conclusions can be found in The January 2002 "Wisdom Survey" Conclusions which provides a detailed list of many diverse facets of wisdom. See also: Resonant Intelligence and the Core Commons If you have comments about this site, email cii@igc.org. |