Wisdom in Later Life and a Humanistic Approach to Gerontology

Ricca Edmondson

National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

This paper questions to what extent exploring phenomena connected with wisdom, as currently pursued by some contemporary gerontologists, psychologists and philosophers, is linked with a humanistic approach to the field. Humanistic gerontology is focused upon here because it specifically regards older people as equals with all others in a shared human predicament. Within this approach, the views, experiences, norms and values of older people might be expected to be seen as highly significant; especially, exploring any wisdom they may have acquired might be expected to be a prominent feature of humanistic work. This would have the effect of acknowledging a full complement of capacities on the parts of older people, offering additional reasons for taking them seriously as co-creators of our social worlds. Nonetheless, the topic of wisdom is not central to the efforts of all humanistic gerontologists.

This paper speculates on some reasons for which the concept of wisdom is not employed widely even by those who might be expected to favour it most. These reasons include difficulties throughout contemporary societies in conceptualising wisdom and taking seriously the language associated with it. They also include the existence of a wide range of different, often incompatible concepts of wisdom. The paper then attempts to respond to some of these problems, relying in particular on the efforts of students in the Republic of Ireland to explore the idea of wisdom among older people and to contribute to our understanding of what it might mean.