From Knowledge to Wisdom : A Revolution in the Aims and Methods of Science

This book argues for the need to put into practice a profound and comprehensive intellectual revolution, affecting to a greater or lesser extent all branches of scientific and technological research, scholarship and education. This intellectual revolution differs, however, from the now familiar kind of scientific revolution described by Kuhn. It does not primarily involve a radical change in what we take to be knowledge about some aspect of the world, a change of paradigm. Rather it involves a radical change in the fundamental, overall intellectual aims and methods of inquiry. At present inquiry is devoted to the enhancement of knowledge. This needs to be transformed into a kind of rational inquiry having as its basic aim to enhance personal and social wisdom. This new kind of inquiry gives intellectual priority to the personal and social problems we encounter in our lives as we strive to realize what is desirable and of value - problems of knowledge and technology being intellectually subordinate and secondary. For this new kind of inquiry, it is what we do and what we are that ultimately our knowledge is but an aspect of our life and being. Many of our present-day social and global problems are in part due to our long-standing failure to develop such a tradition of genuinely rational, socially active thought, devoted to the growth of wisdom. This basic Socratic idea has been betrayed, and as a result, to put it at its most extreme, we now stand on the brink of self-destruction. In the circumstances, there can scarcely be any more urgent task for all those associated in any way with the academic enterprise - scientists, technologists, scholars, teachers, administrators, students, parents, providers of funds - than to help put into practice the new kind of inquiry, rationally devoted to the growth of wisdom.

In this wide ranging yet closely reasoned book, Nicholas Maxwell forcefully argues the need for a comprehensive revolution in the aims and methods of science. The dominant aim of science has traditionally been the acquisition and extension of knowledge. Instead the author argues a new kind of inquiry which would have as its fundamental aim the enhancement of personal and social wisdom. The new kind of inquiry would be devoted to the alleviation of the problems of living - poverty, hunger, political oppression, war - through the discovery and assessment of alternative courses of action leading to the attainment of peace, justice, happiness, a more humane world. Knowledge and technology become subsidiary: it is what we do and what we are that matter. In a careful critical evaluation of the `philosophy of knowledge' and the `philosophy of wisdom', and of the objections to each, the author shows the philosophy of wisdom to be not only more desirable but also more rational. By spelling out its detailed implications, he throws light across a broad spectrum from the philosophy of mathematics and the theory of evolution to educational and religious issues. The result is an impassioned yet rigorous argument which will interest not only the professional philosopher and scientist but anyone concerned with tomorrow's world. `Maxwell's theory of aim-oriented empiricism is the outstanding work on scientific change since Lakatos. . . It is broad in scope, closely and powerfully argued. . . No other theory provides, as Maxwell's does in principle, for the rational direction of the overall growth of science.' George F. Kneller