Mind Matters 2

Mind Matters 2: New Perspectives on the Psychology of Wisdom

February 18 & 19, 2012

Wisdom is often considered the summit of knowledge about human existence and our place in the world. Plato called it “the highest of human things” – enshrined in the very word philosophia, “the love or pursuit of wisdom.”

Yet in our modern era what does wisdom mean, and how can we seek it? What can recent advances in science tell us about the nature of wisdom, the nature of foolishness, and the paradoxes of how they might intertwine? How can our civilisation steer itself onto a wiser road before the hour grows too late?

The speakers for this Mind Matters conference were:

Dr. John Vervaeke, Ph.D. Spoke on “The Cognitive Science of Wisdom: Wisdom as Rationally Self-Transcending Rationality that Enhances Relevance Realization”

Monika Ardelt, Ph.D. Spoke on “The Paradoxical Nature of Personal Wisdom and Its Relation to Human Development in the Reflective, Cognitive, and Affective Domains”

Dr. Dan Merkur, Ph.D. Spoke on “Psychoanalytic Contributions on the Mystical”

Michel Ferrari, Ph. D. Spoke on “In Search of a Unified Science of Personal Wisdom”

Nicholas Maxwell. Spoke on “How Universities Can Help Create a Wiser World: The Need for an Academic Revolution”


Organized by the Buddhism & Psychology Student Union and the U of T Jungian Society.