Is Wisdom Intuitive?
Shabnam Mousavi, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany IS WISDOM INTUITIVE? From what I have read and heard so far, it is often at least assumed that this is the case. What is wisdom? We do not know exactly, and we do not aim to provide a universal definition. But we all agree that wisdom is good, useful, and worth exploring. Can we measure wisdom? Yes, and we do so by eliciting people’s judgments of their own wisdom (self-assessment), or their judgments of others’ wisdom (asking for nominations). Why do we want to measure wisdom? To specify this admirable human capability, unravel its secrets, and obtain more of it; to make it accessible to all; to learn from wise decisions and to develop wise strategies. We want to learn about wisdom to spread it and to expand it. In sum, we all seem to agree that everybody would be better off if we could produce more of this indefinable wisdom; if we were to increase our wisdom scores. Once again, a rational principle prevails: “more i
