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 ...

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 ...

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: ...

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.

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 ...

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 ...

The top-level managers who brought down companies such as Enron, Global Crossing, and WorldCom were, for the most part, nothing if they were not smart and well-educated. Yet one cannot help feeling ...

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.