THE WAY OF WISDOM:
“INTEGRATIVE PLURALISM” AS AN
IMPOSSIBLE YET RELEVANT IDEAL”
~
CONNECTING
THE TRANSCENDENTAL, NATURALISTIC
AND HUMANISTIC HORIZONS OF EXPERIENCE
COURSE DESCRIPTION
• In “The Way of Wisdom” we explore the principle
of “integrative pluralism” as “an impossible yet
relevant ideal,” connecting the Transcendental,
Naturalistic and Humanistic Horizons of Experience
which have become fragmented in the modern
secular technocratic age.
• Further, we explore the search for wisdom within
the context of various historical perspectives and
cultural traditions – sacred and secular, ancient and
modern.
THE WAY OF WISDOM
A BRIEF COURSE OVERVIEW
Session 1: The Way of Wisdom: Singular
Session 2: The Ways of Wisdom: Plural
Session 3: The Transcendental Dimension
Session 4: The Naturalistic Dimension
Session 5: The Humanistic Dimension
Sessions 6-8: Aspects of the Humanistic
Dimension
THE WAY OF WISDOM
A BRIEF COURSE OVERVIEW
Session 6: The Whole Person & the Life Systems
Session 7: Historical Consciousness & the Liberal Arts
Session 8: Worldview Perspectives & Political
Ideologies
A FEW BOOKS THAT GOT ME THINKING
ABOUT “THE WAY OF WISDOM”
• The Way of Wisdom, by Karl Jaspers
• Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, by Karl Jaspers
• Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience, by Stephen
S. Hall
• The Island of Knowledge, by Marcelo Gleiser
• Ways of Wisdom: Readings on the Good Life, Ed. by
Steve Smith
• Three Philosophical Poets, by George Santayana
• The Cosmotheandric Experience, by Raimon Panikkar
A FEW BOOKS THAT GOT ME
THINKING ABOUT “THE WAY OF WISDOM”
• The Passion for Wisdom: A Short History of Philosophy,
by Robert Solomon
• Ten Theories of Human Nature, by Lesley Stevenson &
David L. Haberman
• Worldviews: Cross-cultural Explorations of Human
Beliefs, by Ninian Smart
• The Saturated Self: (Romantic, Modern, Post-modern),
by Kenneth J. Gergen
• The Truth About the Truth: (Romantic, Modern, Postmodern),
Edited by Walter T. Anderson
THE WAY TO WISDOM
BY KARL JASPERS
SOCRATES, BUDDHA, CONFUCIUS, JESUS,
BY KARL JASPERS
WISDOM: FROM PHILOSOPHY TO
NEUROSCIENCE, BY STEPHEN HALL
THE ISLAND OF KNOWLEDGE: THE LIMITS OF
SCIENCE AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING,
BY MARCELO GLEISER
THREE PHILOSOPHICAL POETS:
DANTE, LUCRETIUS, GOETHE,
BY GEORGE SANTAYANA
THE COSMOTHEANDRIC EXPERIENCE;
THE RHYTHM OF BEING,
BY RAIMON PANIKKAR
SESSION1
THE WAY OF WISDOM
PRIMAL WISDOM
BEYOND KNOWLEDGE
WHY WISDOM MATTERS
ANCIENT WISDOM SYMBOLS
TOWARD A DEFINITION OF WISDOM
PLURALISTIC – INTEGRATIVE –
ENCOMPASSING
TRANSCENDENTAL – NATURALISTIC –
HUMANISTIC
THE PRIMAL WISDOM OF
SILENCE, SOLITUDE AND SIMPLICITY
THE PRIMAL WISDOM OF NONATTACHMENT, MINDFULNESS & COMPASSION
THE PRIMAL WISDOM OF
WONDER, GRANDEUR AND BEAUTY
THE PRIMAL WISDOM OF
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
THE PRIMAL WISDOM OF
MUSIC, POETRY AND THE ARTS
THE PRIMAL WISDOM OF
READING, WRITING AND REFLECTION
INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE
ARE NOT ENOUGH!
“KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD,
BUT WISDOM IS BETTER”
WHY DOES WISDOM MATTER?
WHY DOES WISDOM MATTER?
• The alternative to Wisdom is Ignorance,
Arrogance, Madness and Folly. It is a life driven
and consumed by chaos, confusion, fear, craving,
impulse and excess, a life devoid of reflection,
insight, balance and maturity.
WISDOM MAY BE EXPRESSED IN THE
“PRIMAL LANGUAGE”
OF SYMBOL, MYTH, POETRY, PARABLE,
IMAGINATION & THE ARTS.
ANCIENT WISDOM SYMBOLS THAT EVOKE
THE IDEA AND VALUE OF WISDOM
ANCIENT WISDOM SYMBOLS THAT EVOKE
THE IDEA AND VALUE OF WISDOM
ANCIENT WISDOM SYMBOLS THAT EVOKE
THE IDEA AND VALUE OF WISDOM
WISDOM IS EXPRESSED IN THE SYMBOLIC
LANGUAGE OF HOLISTIC MANDALAS
THE IDEAL OF WISDOM IS EXPRESSED IN
LEONARDO DA VINCI’S VERIDICAL MAN
“THE VERIDICAL MAN” SYMBOLIZES
THE HARMONY & BALANCE OF THE WHOLE PERSON
Imagination
Intellect
Heart
Senses
Will
THE IDEAL OF WISDOM IS SYMBOLIZED IN WILLIAM
BLAKE’S GNOSTIC VISION OF
“THE DANCING OF ALBION”
THE IDEAL OF WISDOM IS SYMBOLIZED
IN THE “WISE OLD WIZARD”
OF POPULAR CULTURE
THE IDEAL OF WISDOM IS SYMBOLIZED IN
THE ARCHETYPE OF WISE OLD WOMAN OR CRONE
THE IDEAL OF INTUITIVE SPIRITUAL WISDOM
IS SYMBOLIZED IN THE GODDESS “SOPHIA”
IN ANTIQUITY WISDOM IS SEEN AS
A NATURAL ALLAY OF “THE THREE GRACES”
TOWARD A DEFINITION OF
WISDOM
--WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY
• 1. The ability to understand inner qualities or
relationships
• 2. A body of facts learned by study or experience
• 3. The ability to make intelligence decisions
especially in everyday matters
• 4. Suitability for bringing about a desired result
under circumstances
WISDOM AS
THE OPTIMAL COURSE OF ACTION
• This implies a possession of knowledge or the
seeking thereof in order to apply it to the given
circumstance. This involves an understanding of
people, things, events, situations, and the
willingness as well as the ability to apply
perception, judgment, and action in keeping
with the understanding of what is the optimal
course of action.
(Source: Wikipedia)
WISDOM AS A CARDINAL VIRTUE
• Wisdom (sophia) is the ability to think
and act using knowledge, experience,
understanding, common sense, and
insight. Wisdom has been regarded as one
of four cardinal virtues; and as a virtue, it
is a habit or disposition to perform the
action with the highest degree of
adequacy under any given circumstance.
(Source: Wikipedia)
WISDOM AS
CONTROL OF THE “PASSIONS”
• It often requires control of one's emotional
reactions (the "passions") so that the
universal principle of reason prevails to
determine one's action. In short, wisdom is
a disposition to find the truth coupled with
an optimum judgment as to what actions
should be taken in order to deliver the
correct outcome.
(Source: Wikipedia)
THE NEURAL PILLARS OF WISDOM
WISDOM: FROM PHILOSOPHY TO
NEUROSCIENCE, BY STEPHEN S. HALL
• Emotional Regulation: The Art of Coping
• Knowing What’s Important: The Neural Mechanism
• Moral Reasoning: The Biology of Judging Right from
Wrong
• Compassion: The Biology of Loving-Kindness and Empathy
• Humility: The Gift of Perspective
• Patient: Temptation, Delayed Gratification, Learning to
Wait
• Dealing with Uncertainty: Change & “Meta-Wisdom”
“FOLLY” AS
A DEFICIENCY OF “WISDOM”
MERRIAM-WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY
• 1: lack of good sense or normal prudence and foresight
• 2a: criminally or tragically foolish actions or conduct
• 2b: obsolete: evil, wickedness, especially: lewd
behavior
• 3: a foolish act or idea
• 4: an excessively costly or unprofitable undertaking
THE “CRAZY WISDOM” OF
THE PARADOXICAL “WISE FOOL”
THE CONCEPT OF “THE WISE FOOL”
• The idea of the wise fool seems to be an oxymoron
in which the fool may have an attribute of wisdom.
With probable beginnings early in the civilizing
process, the concept developed during the Middle
Ages when there was a rise of "civilizing" factors
(such as the advent of certain practices of manners
in Western Europe) and achieved its most
pronounced state in the Renaissance. The wisdom
of the fool occupies a place in opposition to that
of learned knowledge.
THE CONCEPT OF “THE WISE FOOL”
• The wise fool may be the Socratic Gadfly whose
wisdom consists of “learned ignorance,” of knowing
that there are things that one does not know, or at
least not through reason, mathematics, logic,
philosophy and science alone.
• One may come to know some things through intuition,
instinct, experience, relationships, “hard knocks” and
common sense.
• The “wise fool” often speaks in the language of jests,
riddles, parables, aphorisms and enigmas that
confound and embarrass the arrogant, powerful,
pretentious and “wise.”
THE WISDOM OF THE “FOX” AND
THE WISDOM OF THE “HEDGEHOG”
The
Fox
has
Many
Small
Ideas
The
Hedgeho
g has
One
Big
Idea
THE WAY OF THE HEDGEHOG
AND THE WAY OF THE FOX
One Big
Idea:
Dig In
and Fight
to
Defend a
Small
Territory
Many Small
Ideas:
Avoid Death
through
Evasively
Covering a
Large
Territory
THE FOX & THE HEDGEHOG SYMBOLIZE THE
YIN & YANG ENERGIES WITHIN THE INTEGRAL TAO
The Fox:
Many
Small
Ideas
The
Hedgeho
g:
One Big
Idea
Pluralistic & Integral
Tao
“ABOVE, BETWEEN, AND BELOW”
~
THE PHENOMENOLOGY
OF IMMEDIATE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
THE THREE HORIZONS OF WISDOM:
FRAGMENTED OR INTEGRAL?
Transcendental
Horizon:
12-14th Century
Middle Ages
Humanistic
Horizon:
14-15th
Century
Renaissance
Transcendental
Horizon:
16th Century
Reformation
1
3
2
Naturalistic
Horizon:
18th Century
Enlightenment
A FOURTH HORIZON?
THE TECHNOCRATIC SOCIETY
Transcendental
Horizon:
12-14th Century
Middle Ages &
16th C.
Reformation
Humanistic
Horizon:
14-15th
Century
Renaissance
1
3
Technological
Horizon:
21st Century
2
Naturalistic
Horizon:
18th Century
Enlightenment
TRANSCENDENTAL,
HUMANISTIC,
NATURALISTIC &
Transcendental
Technocratic
TECHNOCRATIC
HORIZONS?
Horizon:
Horizon:
12-14th Century
Middle Ages &
16th C.
Reformation
Humanistic
Horizon:
14-15th
Century
Renaissance
21st Century
Naturalistic
Horizon:
18th Century
Enlightenment
THE INTEGRAL WISDOM OF THE THREE HORIZONS:
TRANSCENDENTAL – HUMANISTIC – NATURALISTIC
• The Transcendental Horizon: Numinous Intuition (“Above”)
Ontological & Teleological, Being & Process, “Spiritual”
• The Humanistic Horizon: Pragmatic Experience (“Between”)
Body & Soul, Mind & Spirit, Culture & Society, “Human”
• The Naturalistic Horizon: Rational Empiricism (“Below”)
Cosmic & Atomic, Physics & Biology, “Material”
THE THREE HORIZONS AS THREE WAYS OF
THINKING
The Transcendental
The Naturalistic
Horizon:
Horizon:
T
View from “Above”
View From “Below”
Metaphysical
Physical
Consciousness
Cosmos
Mind, Intuitive
Unity in
Matter, Empirical
Diversity
Psyche, Intuition
Soma, Sensation
Introspective
Observational
N
H
Holistic; Music
Mechanistic; Math
Right-Brain “Mystery”
Left-Brain “Mastery”
st
1 Person Subjectivity
3rd Person Objectivity
War m Participation
Cool Detachment
Intuitive-Feeling Type
The Humanistic Horizon: Sensory-Thinking Type
Introverted Perception
View from “Between” Extraverted Judgment
Relational, Dialogical, Synthetic, Symbiotic, Implicit-Explicit, InwardOutward
“I-Thou” & “I-It” : 2nd Person Inter-Subjectivity & Inter-Objectivity
Dante
Seeking an
“Integrative
Pluralist”
perspective on
human beliefs,
values, knowledge
and experience that
finds unity in“N”
diversity…
Lucretius
“T”
L
Unity in
Diversity
...And That
respects our
finite human
comprehension
of the
Encompassing
Reality that
“H” transcends our
limited personal
and cultural
views
Goethe
Applying Integrative Pluralism within an encompassing vision
to the transcendental, Naturalistic AND HUMANISTIC horizons of life
1. THE “TRANSCENDENTAL WISDOM” OF THE
MYSTIC WHO PONDERS THE INEFFABLE
MYSTERY
THE INEFFABLE MYSTERY OF
THE ENCOMPASSING REALITY
THE MYSTERY OF
THE ENCOMPASSING REALITY
AN ENDLESS SERIES OF HORIZONS
ENCOUNTERING
THE LIMITS OF KNOWLEDGE
AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING
2. THE “NATURALISTIC WISDOM”
OF THE SCIENTIST
WHO EXPLORES THE PHYSICAL AND
NATURAL WORLD
TWO WAYS OF THINKING:
TRANSCENDENTAL AND NATURALISTIC
• “There are two ways of thinking. The way of time
and history and the way of eternity and
timelessness, are both part of man’s effort to
comprehend the world in which he lives. Neither is
comprehended in the other nor reducible to it.
They are, as we have learned to say in physical,
complementary views, each supplementing the
other, neither telling the whole story.”
– J. Robert Oppenheimer, Science and the Common
Understanding
3. THE “HUMANISTIC WISDOM” OF THE
SAGE, SCHOLAR, POET, LITERATI AND POLYMATH
THE GRANDEUR OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE:
VAST, INTRICATE, DIVERSE, NUANCED &
SUBLIME
PLATO & ARISTOTLE
AS DIVERGENT SYMBOLS
OF THE CLASSICAL HUMANISTS
THE WISDOM OF
“INTEGRATIVE PLURALISM”
• “Integrative pluralism seeks an open,
expansive and encompassing vision of
reality that makes room for a variety of
different commitments, beliefs, values and
perspectives, including the Transcendental,
Naturalistic and Humanistic horizons of
life, knowledge and experience.”
WHY “INTEGRATIVE PLURALISM”
MATTERS
• It gives us the ability to integrate, connect
or combine a plurality or multiplicity of
viewpoints, values and perspectives into a
more encompassing and unified whole
• It gives us the ability to see the wisdom of
understanding appreciating more than one
point of view
THE RELATION OF
“INTEGRATIVE PLURALISM”
TO THE ENCOMPASSING REALITY
A. Integrative Pluralism assumes that different
visions and values may be partly right, or
symbolically meaningful, or pragmatically useful
within a particular linguistic, historical, social and
cultural context. Many things can all be true.
B. Encompassing Vision respects the finite and
conditioned
limits of human reason, knowledge
and experience, practicing a measure of
metaphysical and epistemological humility before
the vast, ineffable encompassing reality.
AN “ENCOMPASSING VISION” INCLUDES
ALL AGES, CIVILIZATIONS, KNOWLEDGE &
EXPERIENCE
1. Ages
2. Civilizations 3. Knowledge 4. Experience
Primal
Axial/Ancient
Medieval
Early Modern
High Modern
Late Modern
Post-Modern
Trans-Modern
North
North-East
East
South-East
South
South-West
West
North-West
Philosophy
Religion
History
Literature
Arts
Sciences
Psychology
Sociology
Childhood/Yout
h
Young
Adulthood
Mid-Life Adult
Senior/Aging
Comic
Romantic
Tragic
Ironic
INTEGRATIVE PLURALISM IS
“AN IMPOSSIBLE YET RELEVANT IDEAL”
• Why an Impossible Ideal? Because there are
times when our different assumptions,
beliefs, visions and values may in fact be
mutually exclusive, being rationally
contradictory or incompatible with each
other; or else they are radically
incommensurable, that is, so different as to
defy any meaningful comparison at all.
INTEGRATIVE PLURALISM IS
“AN IMPOSSIBLE YET RELEVANT IDEAL”
• Why a Relevant Ideal? Because there are
times when we attempt to make
connections and even to find common
ground between different visions, values,
assumptions and beliefs, since they may be
compatible, complementary, dialectical
and/or paradoxical in their relationship
rather than absolutely opposed and
exclusive of each other.
“MERGERS” AND “SPLITTERS” AS
TWO DIFFERENT CASTS OF MIND
“Mergers” seek to find the common ground
between different perspectives, uniting them into
a greater whole. Their methodology is the
contemplative, paradoxical, mystical and
therapeutic Both-And. They dislike conflict and
prefer to find the middle-ground.
“MERGERS” AND “SPLITTERS”
-TWO DIFFERENT CASTS OF MIND-
“Splitters” seek to force a necessary choice
between contradictory beliefs, values,
perspectives and commitments. Their
methodology of the critical, analytical, prophetic
and ethical Either/Or. They dislike compromise
and prefer to hold firm to their principles.