The Types of Wisdom

Due to a wide range of definitions for the word “wisdom” and the ones who are called “wise”, it may be fundamentally wrong to try to reach a comprehensive definition of wisdom. The dispersion in the meaning of this word is because of the fact that wisdom is not a single word, but it has various forms, each of which has been taken into account by different thinkers of this domain. Therefore, if wisdom is categorized into different and separate domains, perhaps a more realistic concept can be achieved. Thus, this study was carried out to investigate various kinds of wisdom. The present study was conducted within the framework of a qualitative-descriptive approach by content analysis method. Accordingly, the reasons given by the participants as factors that made them wise, explicit content analysis was performed using three processes of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. Data collection instruments included an open-ended questionnaire with demographic variables (۱. Name ten celebrities you think are wise, ۲. What is the reason for choosing these people?). The statistical population included all students of Bu-Ali Sina University, of which ۴۴۵ students (۲۲۰ males and ۲۲۵ females) participated in this study. The results of the study indicated that wisdom can be classified into three dimensions: intellectual wisdom, social wisdom, and existential wisdom. The results also revealed that, based on different cultural contexts, wisdom can be processed in different ways from the perspective of different people. Therefore, according to the findings of this study, it can be said that different types of wisdom exist.

کلیدواژه ها:

wisdom ، theories of wisdom psychology ، implicit theories of wisdom