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

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

Wen-Tao Xu1,Fengyan FengyanWang2,2   

  1. 1. Nanjing Normal University
    2.
  • Received:2021-05-09 Revised:2022-03-26 Online:2022-07-20 Published:2022-07-20
  • Contact: Fengyan FengyanWang

智者一定自我超越吗?智慧与自我超越的关系

许文涛1,汪凤炎1,2   

  1. 1. 南京师范大学
    2. 南京师范大学心理学院
  • 通讯作者: 汪凤炎

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

摘要: 智慧与自我超越的关系紧密虽毋庸置疑,但基于智慧理论取向的不同,其关系模式存在三种观点:自我超越是智慧表现的影响因素;自我超越是智慧的一个方面或子类型;自我超越是智慧心理过程的核心。三种观点的分歧源自智慧定义取向的不同,在各自的理论体系中都有其合理性。以自我超越式的智慧自我为核心的智慧自我-人格-表现纵深模型整合了现有智慧与自我超越关系的多种观点,在发现每种观点更适宜的解释水平及其背后意义的同时,为进一步探究智慧多层内涵提供了可能研究方向。

关键词: 智慧, 自我超越, 超越智慧, 智慧自我, 智慧多层模型