Wisdom and Well-being in a Technological Age

2013

The purpose of this study is to define a comprehensive solution for the improvements of lives of Americans. It is assumed that health is one of the three major constituents of life. The other two are well-being and Health Information Infrastructure. A lack of one of these minimizes the chance for Americans, and in general humans in any country, to lead good lives. It will be a quest for the answer to the question of how to minimize civilizational negatives, particularly in the area of health and its quickly rising costs. Key goals and strategies are defined by improving well-being and health of Americans. Issues such as wisdom and intelligence of the society are evaluated in the context of mental health, prevention, and lifestyles. Special attention is given to the issues of health-care quality and costs and the role and architecture of the Health Information Infrastructure. The conclusion evaluates the chances for implementing the proposed solutions.

Postmodern Openings, 2014

The paper explores the objective behind the progressive technologies and societal subjective judgement towards well-being. The association of both the variables (technology and well-being) illuminates the impact of technology upon the well-being and its interconnected dimensions which consists of people health, community, happiness, prosperity, welfare and nation as a whole. The paper also focuses on the question-does these developing technologies leads towards positive well-being in general or does also leads to increasing negative effects upon the society. The paper provides a practical overview on the complementary relationship on how scientific advancement and technological innovations are important drivers to increase the ease of human life and how the societal demand to lead a comfortable life, directs the origin of new technologies. In this paper presents a brief empirical evidence delineating the implication of technology in our value system, culture and attitude in common and as well as the emerging known and unknown issues coming in the near future.

The Cambridge Handbook of Wisdom, 2019

The literature that has investigated the association between wisdom and well-being has yielded conflicting results ranging from positive associations through zero to even negative associations. After defining and explaining the central constructs, the chapter will provide a review of this literature. While it seems intuitively right that wisdom should be positively associated with well-being, researchers have argued that the association depends on the type of definition and measurement of wisdom and well-being. The chapter will review and discuss the association between wisdom and well-being as a function of the notion and assessment of these constructs and will interpret the seemingly contradictory findings accordingly. Furthermore, the distinction between two types of positive personality development, that is, adjustment and growth, is used to help clarify the relationship between wisdom and subjective and psychological wellbeing. We conclude with a discussion of directions for future research on wisdom and well-being.

Ethics and Information Technology, 2011

This paper provides a general philosophical groundwork for the theoretical and applied normative evaluation of information generally and digital information specifically in relation to the good life. The overall aim of the paper is to address the question of how Information Ethics and computer ethics more generally can be expanded to include more centrally the issue of how and to what extent information relates and contributes to the quality of life or the good life, for individuals and for society. To answer that question, the paper explores and provides by way of a theoretical groundwork for further research, the concept of wisdom understood as a type of meta-knowledge as well as a type of meta-virtue, which can enable one to both know in principle what a good life is and how to successfully apply that knowledge in living such a life in practice. This answer will be based on the main argument presented in this paper that the notion of wisdom understood as being at once a meta-epistemological, meta-axiological and meta-eudemonic concept, provides the essential conceptual link between information on the one hand and the good life on the other. If, as we are told, this is the Age of Information, both the theoretical examination and analysis of the question of how information relates to the good life and the provision of an adequate answer to that question are essential for developing a deeper understanding of how to evaluate the theoretical and practical implications and ramifications of information for the good life, for individuals and societies generally.

Current Psychology, 2022

Narrowing the debate about the meaning of wisdom requires two different understandings of wisdom. (a) As action or behaviour, wisdom refers to well-motivated actors achieving an altruistic outcome by creatively and successfully solving problems. (b) As a psychological trait, wisdom refers to a global psychological quality that engages intellectual ability, prior knowledge and experience in a way that integrates virtue and wit, and is acquired through life experience and continued practice. Thus, we propose a two-dimensional theory of wisdom that integrates virtue and wit. Wisdom can be further divided into "humane wisdom" and "natural wisdom" according to the types of capability required. At the same time, we propose that wisdom classification should integrate the views of Sternberg and Wang and be divided into three types: domain-specific wisdom, domain-general wisdom, and omniscient/ overall wisdom. We then discuss three pressing questions about wisdom, and consider five issues important to the future of wisdom research in psychology.

NTT Technical Review

The development of information and communication technology (ICT) has brought efficiency and convenience to our daily lives. However, it has also been observed to have a negative impact on the emotional state of users. The concept of design for wellbeing is currently drawing a lot of attention. This approach seeks to explore how ICT can support human psychological wellbeing. In this article, we address several questions related to the issue of how to exploit technology and design to improve the wellbeing of humans.

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2021

In philosophy, it is widely held that a person is practically wise if and only if the person knows how to live well, and that a person knows how to live well only if the person knows what is good or important for well-being, or what is a worthwhile end to pursue (c.f. Nozick 1989; Tiberius 2008; Swartwood 2013; Grimm 2015). The question that remains is: What is it that contributes to or constitutes wellbeing known by a wise person? Not all theories of wisdom 1 address this question. Using Stephen Grimm's terminologies, a theory of wisdom is fully articulated "if it not only invokes notions like 1 In this paper, the term "wisdom" means practical wisdom, unless otherwise specified.

Philosophies

In this article I discuss the problem of how we can change our world into a wiser world that is driven by a culture of wisdom inquiry (CWI), i.e., a world that frees humanity from a looming totalitarian catastrophe. How best can we interrogate the traditional wisdom of culture (TWC) that is responsible for the academic institutions of learning, among other kinds of institutions, dogmatically and solely aiming at the acquisition of knowledge and technological prowess (technologisches koennen), instead of the promotion of wisdom and human well-being? What kind of strategic transformations of institutional design, policy and goals within diverse institutions, particularly academic institutions of learning, regionally and globally, are imperative? This paper argues from the principle of universal interconnectedness across nature/universe and the fundamental asymmetry of human well-being interests and nature’s well-being interests. From this, the development of a culture of wisdom inquir...

This book is the first of its kind which defines wisdom as information and the highest level of the cognition units set, composed of data, information, concept, knowledge and wisdom. The author has founded his theory of wisdom on the following assumptions: Any sane person can make wise decisions throughout their lifetime, from childhood to old age; Wise decisions need not be expert in nature; Wisdom ought to be defined in such terms as to be understood not only by experts but by an average man; Wisdom is not synonymous to intelligence; The wisdom of a given human being decides between two systems controlling man: the biological evolution (by the cross-generational chain of genes) and spirituality, whose acquired system of virtues and values influences the actions of man; Wisdom has a range of bandwidth and properties; Knowledge on what constitutes wisdom is not the same as the process of becoming a wise man. Without good life practices, one cannot be a truly wise man; Wisdom ought t...