Self-Reported Wisdom and Happiness: An Empirical Investigation

Possible tensions between wisdom and happiness have been extensively debated in philosophy. Some regard wisdom as the ??supreme part of happiness??, whereas other think that a more accurate and wiser view on reality might reduce happiness. Analyzing a Dutch internet survey of 7037 respondents, we discovered that wisdom and happiness were modestly positively related. Wisdom, measured with the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS), explained 9.2% of the variation in hedonic happiness. The correlation with the reflective dimension of wisdom was the strongest. In addition, wisdom was more important for happiness among adults with only an elementary education. Our results suggest that happiness and wisdom do not conflict.     

Reasoning Is for Arguing: Understanding the Successes and Failures of Deliberation

Theoreticians of deliberative democracy have sometimes found it hard to relate to the seemingly contradictory experimental results produced by psychologists and political scientists. We suggest that this problem may be alleviated by inserting a layer of psychological theory between the empirical results and the normative political theory. In particular, we expose the argumentative theory of reasoning that makes the observed pattern of findings more coherent. According to this theory, individual reasoning mechanisms work best when used to produce and evaluate arguments during a public deliberation. It predicts that when diverse opinions are discussed, group reasoning will outperform individual reasoning. It also predicts that individuals have a strong confirmation bias. When people reason either alone or with like‐minded peers, this confirmation bias leads them to reinforce their initial attitudes, explaining individual and group polarization. We suggest that the failures of reasoning are most likely to be remedied at the collective than at the individual level.     

Women in Psychology: Biography and Autobiography

Biographical information on psychologists occurs in several forms and in a variety of sources. Some journals such as the American journal of Psychology, Science, and, more recently the American Psychologist, regularly publish obituaries of eminent psychologists. Other biographical materials can be found in association with award presentations such as those published in the American Psychologist and the fournal of Social Issues. Autobiographical material for psychologists has appeared chiefly in two outlets: A History of Psychology in Autobiography (6 volumes to 1979) and The Psychologists (3 volumes to 1979). In addition to these forms, there are memorial articles, historical papers, and biographical sketches accompanying the announcement of officers of professional societies. Further, more than 250 book-length biographies and autobiographies have been published about psychologists.     

Guided Autobiography: A Counseling Tool for Older Adults

The author describes Guided Autobiography, a course based on the life review concept, and evaluates its impact on self-concept, time competence, and purpose in life. Despite a lack of significant results on the dependent measures, informal evaluations and a follow-up study indicated that the course had resulted in some positive changes.     

Arguing for a New Form of Taxation: Lifetime Hourly Averaging

This article presents an argument for a new form of tax calculation. Firstly it is argued that Hypothetical Insurance is the best method to determine the correct type of distributive policies and the precise amounts that should be redistributed. Hourly averaging is then presented as a new candidate policy for both assisting the less economically fortunate and taxing the more economically fortunate. The article then argues that hourly averaging compares favourably against rival policies as a hypothetical insurance choice.     

Adjusting the Religious Autobiography Course for the Postmodern Classroom

Religious autobiography as an introductory course is popular yet problematic. Often, it lacks methodological breadth and functions to ensconce Western notions of subjectivity which elide difference, locatedness, and the reality of multiple or shifting identifications. These problems can be addressed by incorporating into the course a community‐based learning exercise in which each student is paired with a local senior citizen, conducts a series of interviews with the elder, and then writes an (auto‐)biography based on the interviews. Students are thus given a real‐life situation in which to test the applicability of theories and definitions of religion, as well as a relationship to a subject whose locatedness and relatively unprivileged “I” allow for the problematization of autobiography as a genre as well as an appreciation for the contextual nature of religiosity. This exercise transforms the religious autobiography course into a pedagogically fruitful, intellectually defensible, and institutionally savvy introductory course.     

Arguing about the ethics of past actions: An analysis of a taped conversation about a taped conversation

In the face of widespread cynicism as regards the possibilities for reasoned and reasonable adjudication of ethical differences in the postmodern age, this essay proposes a dialogic, reconstructive rhetoric as a vehicle for jointly arguing about the ethics of past actions, and looks to the friendship circle as a model arena for the playing out of such a rhetoric. Analyzed by way of illustration is a conversation among four good friends about the ethics of another, surreptitiously taped, conversation between two of those friends.The author wishes to thank Barbie Zeltzer and Micheal Krippondorf, both of Temple University, fot thier comments. Abridged versions of this paper were presented at the Iowa Conference on Narrative in the Human Sciences,1990 and at the England Symposium in Narratives in the Social Sciences. Commentaries at these conferences were also very useful.     

Arguing Towards Truth: The Case of the Periodic Table

Recently Erik Scerri has published an influential philosophical history of the development of the Periodic Table. Following Scerri’s account, I will explore the main thread of the arguments responsible for the remarkable advancement of scientific understanding that the Periodic Table represents. I will argue that the history of disputation at crucial junctures in the debate shows sensitivity to the aspects of truth that are captured by my model of truth in inquiry. The availability of a clear and explicit model of truth in inquiry is of crucial importance as a response to post-modernist and other relativistic accounts of inquiry. It shows that despite such apparent sociological constraints as acceptability a robust theory of truth is available as a foundation for evaluating argumentation.     

Data Management in Academic Settings: An Intellectual Property Perspective

Intellectual property can be an important asset for academic institutions. Good data management practices are important for capture, development and protection of intellectual property assets. Selected issues focused on the relationship between data management and intellectual property are reviewed and a thesis that academic institutions and scientists should honor their obligations to responsibly manage data.     

中国文化中的智慧结构探析

智慧的德才一体理论将智慧定义为个体在其智力与知识的基础上,经由经验与练习习得的一种德才一体的综合心理素质,主张智慧在本质上是良好品德与聪明才智的合金。基于智慧德才一体理论智慧结构的构想,通过实证方法探析中国文化中的智慧结构,结果表明:智慧是一个多层次、多维度的结构,由二阶二因素一阶六因素构成,两个二阶因素分别是聪明才智与良好品德,六个一阶因素分别是:中常智力、创造思维、渊博知识以及善良动机、善良效果、善良手段。六个因素相辅相成,互为补充。     

Wisdom in Love: Kierkegaard and the Ancient Quest for Emotional Integrity

Book reviewed:
Wisdom in Love: Kierkegaard and the Ancient Quest for Emotional Integrity by Rick Anthony Furtak (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005) xii + 236 pp. Reviewed by M. Jamie Ferreira Department of Religious Studies Halsey Hall University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA