The Varieties of Wisdom: Contemplative, Cross-Cultural, and Integral Contributions

Abstract

Contemporary research on wisdom consists of several approaches, inherited from diverse philosophical, religious, and contemplative contributions. This article therefore introduces integral theory to provide an encompassing conceptual framework that can compare approaches and integrate them into a larger picture. Among other things, this facilitates the overdue integration into wisdom research of cross-cultural and contemplative perspectives that offer rich reservoirs of information about wisdom as well as disciplines to cultivate it. Contemplative traditions also point to a further kind of wisdom—a transconceptual seeing into the nature of self and reality—that needs to be included in an expanded category system of the varieties of wisdom.