The University of Chicago "Defining Wisdom" Research Program

The Arete Initiative of the University of Chicago has announced a $2 million program to fund research into the nature and benefits of wisdom. This is another most welcome recognition of the importance of wisdom, and our desire to better understand it. As the program announcement put it, "it is difficult to imagine a subject more central to the human enterprise and whose exploration holds greater promise in shedding light and opening up creative possibilities for human flourishing."

Scholars in a wide range of disciplines located anywhere in the world who have received their Ph.D. within the last ten years are invited to submit proposals for research projects. Full details are available at the program website: http://www.wisdomresearch.org/.

Those interested in wisdom research might want to explore the two doctoral dissertations that can be downloaded from The Wisdom Page:

The Scientific Approach to Wisdom, a doctoral dissertation by Richard Trowbridge. This is the complete dissertation in Microsoft Word format — a comprehensive review of the scholarly research on wisdom from 1980 to 2005, and a useful overview of the history of wisdom.

Education: From Conception to Graduation – A Systematic Integral Approach, a doctoral dissertation by Anne Adams concerning education for wisdom — integral education — education that purposefully develops and integrates the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual intelligences.