July 24, 2010

Nigel Biggar on the "wisdom society"

Nigel Biggar writes about what it takes to achieve a "wisdom society," in his essay "What are Universities For?":
A commitment to the truth, humility, a readiness to be taught, patience, carefulness, charity: all of these moral virtues that inform the intellectual discipline into which the arts and humanities induct their students; all of these moral virtues of which public discourse, whether in the media or in Parliament or in Congress, displays no obvious surplus. All of these moral virtues, without which this country and others may get to become a "knowledge economy", but won't get to become a "wisdom society".