This provocative and challenging book questions how people think about what universities should seek to do and how they should respond to the grave problems of our age. It addresses issues such as:
- What is wisdom?
- Ought universities to seek, promote and teach wisdom and what would this involve?
- Does it mean we need a revolution in the aims and methods of academic inquiry?
- What implications would the pursuit of wisdom have for science, for social inquiry and the humanities, for education?
- Is it reasonable to ask of universities that they take up the task of helping humanity learn how to create a wiser world?
- Is there a religious dimension to wisdom?
- What can non-academics do to encourage universities to take wisdom seriously?
- Would the pursuit of wisdom be possible given that universities are increasingly subjected to commercial pressures?
With contributions from leading experts in various fields Wisdom in the University is essential reading for all those interested in the future of universities and philosophy of education.
This book was previously published as a special issue of London Review of Education
1. From Knowledge to Wisdom: The Case for a Revolution, Nicholas Maxwell, University College London 2. Teaching for Wisdom: What Matters is not what Students Know, but How They Use It, Robert Sternberg, Tufts University, Alina Reznitskaya, Montclair State University, Linda Jarvin, Tufts University 3. Wisdom as Skill: Teaching Wisdom for Lifelong Learning, Richard Trowbridge, Bryant and Stratton College 4. Wisdom Remembered: Recovering a Theological Vision of Wisdom for the Academe, Celia Deane-Drummond, University of Chester 5. Shakespeare’s Take on Human Wisdom, Alan Nordstrom, Rollins College 6. Irreconciliable differences? Rationality v Cautious Confidence in Academia, Samer Bagaeen, University of Strathclyde 7. To what extent does Academic put Wisdom-Inquiry into Practice?, Mathew Iredale, The Stroke Association 8. The Pursuit of Wisdom and Commercial Pressures, Leemon McHenry
Biography
Ronald Barnett is Pro-Director for Longer Term Strategy and Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London., Nicholas Maxwell is Emeritus Reader in Philosophy of Science and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London.
