Dear Friends of Wisdom,
 
                                     This is to let you know about a special wisdom issue of the London Review of Education which has just been published.  This issue contains 7 articles, all concerned, in one way or another, with wisdom and education.  There are a number of links with Friends of Wisdom.  Ronald Barnett, professor of education at the London Institute of Education, is the editor of the journal.  He is a Friend of Wisdom.  He asked me to co-edit a special issue of the journal devoted to wisdom and the university.  There are articles by Mathew Iredale, Leemon McHenry, Robert Sternberg et al, Richard Trowbridge, Celia Deane-Drummond, Alan Nordstrom, and myself.  Four contributors are Friends of Wisdom, and two others have expressed sympathy with our aims.
 
                                     The publisher, Routledge, has just released a Press Release about this issue of the journal: see below.
 
                           Best wishes,
 
                                     Nick 
www.nick-maxwell.demon.co.uk

Press Release

 

The pursuit of Wisdom – creation of a wiser world

 

Wisdom – the capacity to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others.

Influential philosopher Nicholas Maxwell, of University College London, UK, has devoted much of his working life to arguing that there is an urgent need to bring about a revolution in academia so that it seeks and promotes wisdom and does not just acquire knowledge. Maxwell, working as Guest Editor, has produced a Special Issue of the journal London Review of Education to explore the place of wisdom in Higher Education.  

 

Questions, questions…

Ought universities to seek, promote and teach wisdom?  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?

 

These questions and more are addressed in this landmark Special Issue of London Review of Education, published by Routledge. The issue seeks to understand how wisdom is gained through knowledge, experience and life long learning, evaluates how wisdom affects our lives and how knowledge should be used in the pursuit of wisdom. It bristles with provocative and challenging ideas, calling for all of us to think again about what universities should seek to do, and how they could respond to these issues.

 

This remarkable Special Issue can be purchased for £15/$25 by filling in an online form at: www.informaworld.com/lre and clicking on the News and Offers link.