How Wisdom Emerges from Intellectual Development: A Developmental/Historical Theory for Raising Mandelas

Abstract

This paper invokes cognitive developmental theory as a means for preparing citizens to deal with and resolve conflicts within or across nations. We take the centuries-old Greek–Turkish dispute as an example. We first outline a theory of intellectual development postulating that mental changes emerge in response to changing developmental priorities in successive life periods, namely, interaction control in infancy, attention control and representational awareness in preschool, inferential control and cognitive management in primary school, and advanced forms of reasoning and self-evaluation in adolescence. Based on this model, we outline a control theory of wisdom postulating that different aspects of wisdom emerge during development as different levels of control of relations with others: trust and care for others in infancy, taking the other’s perspective, reflectivity, and empathy in preschool, rationality and understanding the rules underlying individual and group interactions in primary school, and understanding the general principles of societal operation explaining the differences in approach and interest between groups in adolescence and early adulthood. We also outline the educational implications of this theory for the education of citizens by capitalizing on intellectual strengths at successive developmental periods to comprehensively understand the world and to act prudently when dealing with interpersonal and social or national conflict. Finally, the paper discusses the political constraints and implications of this theory. This is the first attempt to derive wisdom from the development of cognitive and personality processes from infancy through early adulthood and to connect it to serious world problems.

Intelligence and wisdom: Age-related differences and nonlinear relationships.

“…Wisdom is a complex, multifaceted construct; how developmental resources contribute to its emergence over the life-span is a highly interesting topic for future research. In particular, more research is needed on the cognitive and noncognitive roots of wisdom in childhood (Demetriou et al, 2021; Jeste & Lee, 2019; Pasupathi et al, 2001) and the changing dynamic of cognitive wisdom resources in old age.…”

“…While several studies have reported correlations between intelligence and wisdom (see Intelligence Is a Necessary but Not Sufficient Condition for Wisdom section), there are few theoretical accounts of the relationship (but see Demetriou et al, 2021; Glück, 2020a; Tynjälä et al, 2020). Early on, some authors discussed wisdom as a form of postformal thinking (e.g., Arlin, 1990; Kitchener & Brenner, 1990; Labouvie-Vief, 1990; Pascual-Leone, 1990), but little empirical research has followed up on those ideas.…”