This chapter is concerned with tracing the varying, and various, guises that wisdom has worn in certain Western discourses. The picture that emerges is a paradoxical one. Whereas one might have assumed some degree of homogeneity in the ways in which the ancient Greeks, for example, portrayed and pursued wisdom, this proves not to be the case. Neither is the picture more straightforward when we look at wisdom’s articulations across a range of beliefs and disciplines including the Judaeo/Christian, Western philosophical and psychological traditions, and, latterly, the neuroscientific. The chapter includes the challenges besetting the adult educator, but reiterates the appeal underlying this whole volume: an urgent entreaty to find ways in which wisdom might be invited into her teaching and learning spaces.
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Fraser, W. (2018). Searching for Sophia: Wisdom as Paradox. In: Seeking Wisdom in Adult Teaching and Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56295-1_3
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