ABSTRACT
Before exploring what social practice wisdom is in Chapter 3, we explore here how secular wisdom discourse, established by the ancient Greeks, was overtaken across Europe fi rst by Christian metaphysics and then by rationalism and science discourses. This is a history in which at different times, different groups embraced parts of Aristotelian wisdom that were convenient within their ideologies but did not embrace wisdom in its entirety. By tracing this history and charting the relationship between wisdom and industrial capitalism, we can better understand the implications of wisdom as a marginalized concept in contemporary Western culture. Specifi cally for this book, it is important to map the rises and falls of the humanist ethos in relation to esoteric godly wisdom and utilitarian rationality that superseded wisdom. Doing this illustrates how attitudes to management are retarded by a lack of depth and vision, and a stunted view of life’s purpose. This background establishes a solid foundation for the next chapter’s ontological and defi nitional work, but also suggests a cause for optimism about possibly reclaiming some of wisdom’s lost ground.
