You may know wisdom when you see it, but scientists have yet to come of with a concise definition. A new survey of 30 people who study wisdom reveals wisdom has features that distinguish it from other ...

Could sagacity might have a neurobiological basis? In a new article, psychiatry experts attempt to identify the central, unifying elements that define wisdom. Compassion. Self-understanding. Morality.

When asked to define wisdom, Socrates just shrugged. He said he couldn’t find it, whatever it was, either in himself or in any of his fellow citizens. The news from Monika Ardelt is more encouraging.

Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of all time, offered profound insights into how humans can live meaningful and ...

Morrie Schwartz was a Brandeis sociology professor who died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1995. While he was dying, he had a couple of conversations with Ted Koppel on "Nightline" and a bunch ...

Researchers asked 21 hospice patients, ages 58 to 97 and in the last six months of their lives, to describe the core characteristics of wisdom and whether their terminal illnesses had changed or ...

One day, somebody said, “I enjoy reading your column, but I’m not always sure what it does for the university.” It was one of those hot-potato moments. I thought fast and tossed this back: ...

About a year ago I wrote an article seeking a non-subjective definition for butthead, an alternative to the subjective definition as anyone with whom I butt heads. This is a central research question ...

As many of us know, Erik Erikson’s theory of the life course proposes a developmental task or crisis for eight stages of life. The task designated for old age, the eighth stage of life, is integrity ...

Compassion. Self-understanding. Morality. Emotional stability. These words would seem to describe at least some of the universal traits attributed to wisdom, each of them broadly recognized and valued ...