The role of emotions in the development of wisdom

Abstract

It is with a slight sense of embarrassment that we embark on this task of writing about wisdom. Although it is clearly the case that one can be immersed in a subject without claiming kinship with it-an entomologist can write about spiders without having to be one-wisdom has an alluring aura suggesting that those who dare to write about it must be to some extent also wise. We would like to relinquish any claims to that effect, at the outset, and, relieved of the burden of appearing wise, start to analyze this important and interesting phenomenon with the conceptual tools of the social sciences.