Is self-transcendence necessary for wisdom? The relationship between wisdom and self-transcendence

Wen-Tao Xu Fengyan FengyanWang

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2022, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (4) : 778-784.

PDF(468 KB)
PDF(468 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2022, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (4) : 778-784.

Is self-transcendence necessary for wisdom? The relationship between wisdom and self-transcendence

  • Wen-Tao Xu1,Fengyan FengyanWang2,2
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Abstract

Although there is a close relationship between wisdom and self-transcendence, it is still necessary to systematically analyze how they are related, which will help to further understand the structure of wisdom and the connotation of self-transcendence. Some consider self-transcendence and wisdom to be different psychological constructions. The former can promote individual wisdom performance. Wisdom is embodied in the specific performance of individuals in social situations, determined by the interaction between individuals and the environment, and is relatively independent of individual characteristics. Researchers mainly focus on the promotion of self-transcendent cognitive mindset to individual's wise performance in dealing with life difficulties or conflict problems. The second view is that self-transcendence is an aspect, a subcomponent, or a type of wisdom. This view mainly defines wisdom from the perspective of personality trait orientation, and holds that wisdom is a relatively stable ability or trait of an individual, so self-transcendence is directly incorporated into the multiple construction of wisdom, which directly indicates the self-transcendence attribute of wisdom. Wisdom occurs in three levels: within individual, between individuals and super individuals. The three intelligence components corresponding to the field of superindividual are: self-transcendence, recognition of limits of knowledge and understanding, and philosophical/spiritual commitments. Evidence supports the idea that transcendent wisdom and practical wisdom are two types of wisdom. Some researchers define and measure wisdom by self-transcendence and think that self-transcendence is the core of wisdom. Practical wisdom depends on the requirements of culture, or the times, different cultures and societies have different criteria, and self-transcendence is a kind of existence beyond situation, culture, and the times, which is not transferred by the will of society or the times. This view, as a theoretical orientation of wisdom connotation, focuses on the importance of self-transcendence to individual wisdom, emphasizes the core position of self-transcendence in the construction of wisdom, and conforms to the religious and philosophical traditions that attach importance to internal thoughts and spiritual experience, which is also in line with the general cognition of the public about the secularity of wisdom. Based on the two orientations of trait wisdom and state wisdom and the study of self-development, we put forward the Multilayer Model of Wisdom (MMW). State wisdom research focuses on the wise performance of individuals in life situations, which is the outermost layer of wisdom. Trait wisdom research regards it as one kind of relatively stable ability or trait of an individual, which is the stable carrier of the existence of wisdom and the psychological basis of its presentation. At a deeper level, wise self of self-transcendent is the core of the wisdom personality and even the whole wisdom psychological process. By integrating various wisdom theories into the wisdom depth model, we can not only integrate the previous views on the relationship between wisdom and self-transcendence, but also find the more appropriate explanation level of each wisdom theory and the meaning behind it.

Key words

wisdom / self-transcendence / transcendent wisdom / wise self / the Multilayer Model of Wisdom

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Wen-Tao Xu Fengyan FengyanWang. Is self-transcendence necessary for wisdom? The relationship between wisdom and self-transcendence[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2022, 45(4): 778-784
PDF(468 KB)

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