Capturing the Ineffable

An Anthropology of Wisdom

By: Philip Y. Kao (Editor), Joseph S. Alter (Editor)

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Hardcover | 18 May 2020

At a Glance

Hardcover
264 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.5 x 16.0 x 1.9

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$117.98

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Grounded in ethnographic case studies that examine experiences from which wisdom emerges, Capturing the Ineffable provides a rigorous analysis of the sociocultural context of wisdom in the contemporary world. Each chapter in the volume deals with different aspects and showcases how communities in different contexts - nursing homes, religious organizations, corporations, and monastic institutions, for example - engage with the ineffability of wisdom.

Contributors draw from a range of disciplines and cross-cultural and historical data in order to interpret the meaning and value of wisdom as a human endeavour. This book also represents an anthropological method for evaluating various philosophical and scientific approaches to understanding wisdom, including how wisdom is learned and taught. Readers will be able to appreciate how action, emotion, uncertainty, and cultural systems come to bear on wisdom as a value in human life and expression. In the end, Capturing the Ineffable reveals how the conception and paradoxical nature of wisdom dispels the dichotomies of self/other, structure/agency, known/unknown, nature/culture, and the like. What is at stake is a recasting of wisdom as a particular kind of anthropological endeavour and, thus, a return to and modification of philosophical anthropology.

Industry Reviews

Capturing the Ineffable opens up new rich conversations surrounding the elusive concept of wisdom, a topic that has not attracted ethnographic work in depth.

- Huon Wardle, Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews

Research on wisdom has had a resurgence in the past decade in psychological science and philosophy over the past decade. Kao and Alter have produced a volume that draws on the perspective of anthropology to frame an understanding of wisdom across cultures and meanings. From literature to practices of various kinds, the authors address how wisdom is sought, recognized, and communicated, adding new depth and illuminating context to the study of wisdom.

- Howard C. Nusbaum, Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and Director of the Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom

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