Interkulturelle Weisheitsforschung | Wisdom research in an intercultural perspective
The thesis of my paper is that wisdom is a kind of knowledge and a way of life which is able to transcend linguistic, cultural, religious and other boundaries ― despite its contextual constraints. Wisdom contains a universal, an intercultural element. Wisdom is not just a tool to cope with ones private life or for the individual search for meaning and significance of life, but also an international peacemaking force.
The paper is divided into three main parts:
1. What is wisdom?
A historical approach to wisdom by texts from different regions of the world (ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Dogen Zenji) gives evidence to a number of similarities across cultural regions and times. Wisdom was concerned with the goals and conduct of life and its meaning, with important matters of life, and with aiming for the highest level of mental and personal accomplishment possible. It is a quest for a high level of functioning of mind and personality, combining the good for oneself with the good of others. Ancient wisdom texts emphasize the intimate connection between intellect and virtue; acknowledge the limits of our knowledge and the continuous changes of our world and life's.
2. Wisdom Research in Psychology
The German Psychologist and Gerontologist Paul Baltes (1939-2006) defines wisdom as the "Orchestration of Mind and Virtue" (title of a manuscript from 2004). Baltes and his colleagues at the Berlin Max Planck Institute for Human Development developed in a research over more than 15 years a psychological theory of wisdom, the so called Berlin Wisdom Paradigm. The research included tests and interviews with selected individuals from Berlin differing in age and sex. They were asked to solve certain "wisdom problems". The process of thinking and the solutions were recorded and later reviewed by certain professional reviewers who judged the answers according to five "wisdom criteria": knowledge about facts, procedural knowledge, relativism of values and tolerance, lifespan-contextualism and knowledge about dealing with uncertainties. On a scale of seven values, a so called "wisdom score" was determined. The study brought up some interesting results, among them the fact, that wisdom increases between the age of 15 up to 25, but later not any more.
Baltes argues that seven properties are generally accepted as inherent in wisdom: 1. Wisdom addresses important and difficult questions and strategies about meaning of life and the appropriate conduct. 2. It includes awareness about the limits of knowledge and the uncertainties in the world. 3. Wisdom refers to a high level of knowledge, judgment, and advice. 4. It constitutes knowledge with extraordinary scope, depth, and balance. 5. Wisdom involves a perfect synergy of mind and character, that is, an orchestration of knowledge and virtues. 6. Wisdom can be defined as knowledge used for the good or well-being of oneself and that of others. And 7. though difficult to achieve and to specify, wisdom is easily recognized when manifested.
But what is the importance and contribution of psychological wisdom research for philosophy? And does it have an intercultural relevance?
3. Henry Odera Oruka and the Sage Philosophy in Africa
Henry Odera Oruka's (1944 – 1995) Sage philosophy is one of the most popular, even so controversially discussed, philosophical projects in Africa. Sage Philosophy started in 1974 as a reaction against the colonial prejudices of the inferiority of African cultures and the myths of African “communal thinking”. It undertakes the attempt to identify individual philosophers in traditional African communities. Academically trained philosophers went to village communities to make interviews on philosophical topics (like truth, God, good life) with people identified as sages by their own communities. The talks were recorded and later analyzed. Wisdom means for Odera Oruka the ability to apply one's knowledge for the well-being and betterment of his/her community. A sage „… aims at the ethical betterment of the community that he lives in." According to the results of the analysis, Odera Oruka differentiates between folk-sages (persons who uncritically transfer the knowledge of the ancestors) and philosophical sages (persons who are able to evaluate the heritage of knowledge critically, who present their own reasonable point of view and who are able to refuse traditional concepts).
Today Sage philosophy has prominent critics as well as supporters. The project has been discussed controversially, especially the method of interviewing sages and the differentiation between folk and philosophic sages. The shortcomings of the interviews consist in ignoring renowned techniques of interviewing (from sociology or other sciences). The interviewers did not follow a certain line of the talk. Thus, it is difficult to compare the answers of different sages. Furthermore, it was not taken into consideration, how much questions might influence and shape the answers.
These shortcomings might be solved by applying the method of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm to philosophical field studies. The method to bring up "wisdom problems" to be solved by the sage might be more appropriate and effective to get to know more information about traditional ethical, ontological and epistemological principles than a questionnaire. The process of how sagacious reasoning works will become more obvious, without interfering into the thinking process of the sage.
Intercultural wisdom research needs to be interdisciplinary. It has to go beyond the search for differences and should focus on the common grounds of wisdom – as a kind of knowledge working against the fragmentation of our world.
Dr. Anke Graneß, Wien / Bonn, studierte Philosophie und Afrikanistik an den Universitäten Leipzig und Wien, Promotion an der Universität Wien, Gründungsmitglied und seit 2009 Leiterin der Redaktion der Zeitschrift Polylog. Zeitschrift für interkulturelles Philosophieren. Sie lehrt an der Universität Wien am Institut für Philosophie und am Institut für Internationale Entwicklung. Arbeitsschwerpunkte: Interkulturelle Philosophie, Philosophie in Afrika, Ethik, Theorien der Gerechtigkeit, Armutsforschung. Zu ihren Publikationen gehören u.a. Das menschliche Minimum. Globale Gerechtigkeit aus afrikanischer Sicht: Henry Odera Oruka (Campus 2011), "What is Global Justice?: Henry Odera Oruka’s Contribution to the Current Debate" In: Journal on African Philosophy. Issue 6 (2012), pp. 31-46. Mitherausgeberin der Bände Perspektiven interkulturellen Philosophierens. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Methodik von Polylogen (Facultas/WUV 2012) und Sagacious Reasoning. H. Odera Oruka in memoriam (Lang Verlag 1997).