Is a wise person likely to be 'wisdom-savvy'?

and conversely, is a wisdom-savvy person likely to be wise?

Would a wise person want to compete for a Wisdom Award?  Or even want a 
Wisdom award?

Perhaps Cop's message is not really about wisdom, but about wisdom 
expertise, a rather different thing.

best wishes

stephen

Copthorne Macdonald wrote:
>
> Hello Kevin Porter — and all,
>
>  
>
> With regret, and the excuse of busyness, I admit to not following the 
> recent exchange of emails on FRIENDS OF WISDOM.  Fortunately, however, 
> friend and colleague Lee Beaumont alerted me to your most interesting 
> posting, Kevin.  It turns out that our Wisdom Page group is promoting 
> the idea of an award for exceptional wisdom that, as Lee and I see 
> it, could be a useful feedback mechanism in the kind of "wisdom 
> system" you envision.
>
>  
>
> First, a little background.  In the 1980s I became convinced that what 
> we as individuals and world society needed was more of that crucially 
> important but out-of-fashion thing called wisdom.  I read about it 
> widely and deeply, and in the early 1990s wrote two books on aspects 
> of the subject.  In 1995 I created The Wisdom Page website 
> (www.wisdompage.com <http://www.wisdompage.com/>) with the intention 
> of making wisdom resources available worldwide.  Over the years — as 
> wisdom scholars, authors, and others contributed content to the site — 
> it has grown greatly in usefulness.  It has also grow in popularity.  
> Today, a Google search for the word “wisdom” returns some 62 million 
> pages.  The Wisdom Page website is consistently in the top ten of 
> those pages, on the first page of the search returns.  Each month the 
> site successfully fills more than 35,000 requests for documents, 
> podcasts and videos by visitors from more than 140 countries.
>
>  
>
> Some contributors of content to The Wisdom Page have coalesced into a 
> network of wisdom-savvy individuals who would like to see a greater 
> interest in wisdom and its development among the world’s people.  
> Clearly, the website is helping to meet the needs of those who already 
> have some interest  in the subject.  They Google or Bing “wisdom” and 
> the website is right there.  We are pleased to be able to help these 
> visitors learn more about wisdom, but our interests go beyond serving 
> this group.  We have been asking ourselves, “How can we reach that 
> much larger group for whom wisdom is just a remote and fuzzy 
> concept?”  Our more fundamental objective/goal/mission is to create a 
> greater interest in wisdom among people in general, whoever they are 
> and wherever they live. 
>
>  
>
> Toward that end, the first “bright idea” we are pursuing is that of a 
> Wisdom Award.  We see it as a way of making the concept of wisdom real 
> to people, and something to aspire to.  We are trying to induce 
> organizations — including, but not limited to, seniors’ organizations 
> — to offer an “Award for Exceptional Wisdom” in their country.  To 
> date, the idea has received a somewhat cool initial reception from 
> CARP in Canada and National Seniors Australia, but a warmer reception 
> from a long-established financial institution in Australia.  This 
> firm’s Foundation branch, in giving away $20 million a year, funds 
> Australia’s premier literary award and a number of arts awards.  The 
> firm has expressed interest in the Wisdom Award idea and is currently 
> considering it.  In addition, we are currently working with the 
> Director of Academic Affairs at AARP (American Association of Retired 
> People) who is excited about the idea and has offered to help us 
> further it in a variety of ways.
>
>  
>
> We picture the award being offered by organizations in many countries 
> around the world, and see our role in all of this as that of 
> facilitator.  We have no money to bring to the table, but we have 
> people with wisdom expertise and award experience on our Award 
> Planning Committee.  Having considered various nomination and 
> adjudication options we could help with the planning process, suggest 
> people for juries, write articles for organization publications, and 
> in other ways help an organization think through the process and 
> launch the award.  We have created “starting point” materials for 
> consideration, but are not wedded to any particular approach.  Our aim 
> is simply to increase interest in, and knowledge about, wisdom.
>
>  
>
> Lee and I are both engineers by training, and thus intimately familiar 
> with, and friendly to, the systems and feedback ways of looking at 
> things.  We'd be interested in your thoughts about this idea.  We'd 
> also be interested in hearing your thoughts — and those of  other 
> FRIENDS OF WISDOM participants — about other feedback mechanisms 
> that might be worth considering.
>
>  
>
> All the best,
>
>  
>
> Cop
>

-- 

Stephen Rowland
Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, University College London
Prof. of Higher Education, The Institute of Education, London University

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