Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience

It really comes down to this: the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex are constantly in tension when we make decisions, and we really make most of our decisions up to 10 seconds before we are consciously aware of them. The more that the deliberative prefrontal cortex wins out, probably the wiser that we are. Hall sets out to explore the neural circuitry behind certain human propensities--what he calls the eight pillars of wisdom: emotional regulation, knowing what's important, moral reasoning, compassion, humility, altruism, patience, and dealing with uncertainty. First, he looks at different aspects of wisdom--it lies at the intersection of knowledge and choice, but it includes the ability to take in multiple perspectives, to understand a situation clearly, in spite of ambiguity, and it includes the ability to remain positive. It involves expert knowledge, emotional control, social compassion, and insight into human nature.

Hall pushes for the adaptive survival value of wisdom for a social grouping, returning again and again to the tension between abstract moral or social dilemmas that affect the smooth functioning of the entire group, and the "more primal… emotional" judgement brought about by kin or special people. He comes back to this point when talking about the "hyperbolic discount curve." We value something (driven by a dopamine reward system that gives us pleasure) and divide that value by how long it takes us to get the reward. The longer we have to wait, the less value do we see. Long range planning and valuation are at a major disadvantage and Hall talks much about the psychology of economics. I think, for him, it really comes down to will power (think William James, but also Kierkegaard?) and the ability of the mind to put off immediate gratification with some idea of the future that is somehow more alluring and more rewarding that the present: "a cognitive act of imagination sometimes verging … on fantasy."

Compassion seems to be intimately tied up with the mysterious mirror neurons that are scattered across the brain and allow us to feel another person's experience. The feelings of disgust and aversion, originating in the dorsal striatum and the insular cortex, drives much of our sense of morality and of fairness, and we get a charge not only from cooperating with others but also from punishing those that we see as unfair or immoral. Once again, it is the more deliberative part of the brain, the PFC, that turns the punishment into action against "social defectors and noncooperators" who threaten the cooperation and the cohesion of a group.

He also gives a chapter to "meta wisdom," where the mind must learn to switch between the automatic "model-based" learning system associated with the emotional brain, and the "model-free" learning system of the neo-cortex, especially the PFC, that is needed when we are confronted with new or unexpected experiences and more deliberation and information is needed: "all our higher cognitive functions, planning, abstract thinking, decision making, and considering the future consequences of actions."  Acetylcholine and norepenephrin may play a part by signaling uncertainty in new situations, allowing the neo-cortex to come into play. It may also point to the role of the ventromedial PFC, which coordinates a lot of emotional processing, as opposed to the dorsolateral PFC, which is involved more in new learning.

 Hall suggests that the development of this meta-wisdom may come with age and adversity, tempering the actions of the old emotional brain of the amygdala/insula with the more deliberative reflections of the neo-cortex as death draws closer and it becomes necessary to extract the most salient emotional and interpersonal details from any situation. "Older adults are more supple in their assessments of problems, and they display greater flexibility, guided in part by their ability to regulate their emotions." So while we may suffer cognitive declines in the motor cortex, the visual cortex, and the physical-sensory part of the cortex, "we make gains in social knowledge and emotional judgement, increasing our problem solving skills."

There's a bit of "so what?" about all of this. Hall asks if there can be a science of wisdom by looking at the tension between the "limbic" system (he doesn't particularly care for this term) and the neo-cortex by looking at which areas of the brain light up during a fMRI. Interpreting fMRI is tricky, to say the least, as made clear by John Medina's article in Psychiatric Times, and we should be skeptical of how this data can be interpreted. The brain is very, very complex, and there is more of a disconnect between the data and the "reverse inferences" (Medina's term) than are really hinted at in the data. Also, there's something about explaining human behavior by taking it down to the molecular level or by showing its survival value to the species or the group that just somehow doesn't compute for me. I appreciate and am fascinated by these looks at the different parts and functions of the brain and how they beget mind, but my experience tells me that free will and conscious choice have played a major role in making me who I am or at least who I feel that I am. At least Hall tries to bring back deliberation and conscious choice into the discussion--the conscious formation of value and willpower (or dare I say it, Will to Power?)--that heroic self-overcoming that marked the greatness--and wisdom--of humans in Nietzsche.

Author: Hall, Stephen S.

Date Published: 2010

Length: 352 pp

electronic print

Genghis Khan the Making of the Modern World

This book turned out to be quite a revelation. I think that Weatherford's central thesis is that the Mongols have been totally misunderstood, underappreciated, and misrepresented by western writers as barbarian conquerers and destroyers. (He lays much of the blame for this at Voltaire's doorstep.) Weatherford's point is that they essentially made the modern world. During the Mongol World War and the "Pax Mongolia" that followed, the Mongols ruled much of the known world and instituted policies and practices that gave rise to much of the modern world economy and politics. He makes a strong case that Medieval Europe was the direct beneficiary of Mongol rule, while remaining unconquered, receiving the technology that enabled the Renaissance: "They laid the nucleus of the universal culture and world system,  global civilization. The basis for modern world culture. Europeans were recipients of this civilization even though not conquered by the Mongols, leading to the reawakening of European civilization. " The hallmarks of Mongol rule were free economic trade, religious toleration, and meritocracy of service. Under their rule, a number of states took shape that have something like the same boundaries that they have today: China, Russia, Korea, and Russia. It's a long way from the normal thinking that we have of Genghis Khan and the mongol hordes.

It all began with Genghis, of course, and Weatherford tells his story about growing up an orphan and an outcast but who eventually unites the disparate tribes into the Mongol people and thence begins conquering neighboring peoples and tribes until he and his descendants essentially ruled all the people between the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterreanean Sea. Genghis himself conquered the northern Chinese Jurgen, most of the central Asian cities, and much of Persia. His sons and grandsons went on to establish the golden Horde in Russia, extending rule in India, and uniting northern and southern China into one Kingdom, extending free trade and the Mongol economy that encouraged the exchange of culture and technology. Much of the Mongol empire then fell apart either through nationalist uprisings by the conquered people or through dynastic squabbling among the heirs, but Weatherford also points to the importance of the plague in bringing down the trading networks on which the empire depends. Of course, it was those same networks that were responsible for the rapid spread of the plague out of the Chinese deserts and into the rest of the world. Even so, the Moghul emperors claimed direct descent back through Tamerlane to Genghis Khan, and they ruled India until deposed--and beheaded--by the British in, what, 1848? And the last Mongol ruler in central asia wasn't overthrown until the 1950's

Author: Weatherford, Jack

Date Published: 2005

Length: 14 hr 20 min

Narrator: Davis, Johnathan

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

This was another book that took an inordinately long time to finish once I turned Sara on to it and we could only listen to it together. And so it seems a bit disjointed in retrospect.

And, let's face it, McDougall is prably full of shit in a lot of his conclusions. He happily pushes the concept of barefoot or minimalist running with an emphassis on how modern running shoes are ruining the experience of running--and our bodies--by overprotecting our feet. He did get me to research the topic, and I'm considering incorporating some minimalist running into my training, but he projects the attitude of a true believer, especially in his diatribes toward Nike, and comes off a bit over the top. But at the same time, McDougall is a good story teller. He was over the top again in his descriptions of the dangers of going into the Copper Canyon for the first time--why did he keep returning if it was so dangerous, and why didn't Jim and Susan mention how dangerous it was when they went backpacking there with Clay and Shirena?

The book took off for me when McDougall described the birth of the Leadville 100 and the Western States 100 and of many of the personalities involved in ultraendurance running. The introduction of the Tarahuamara at Leadville is the center of this sectin of the book, and he makes note of the idea that they were essentially exploited thge first couple of years that they ran, albeit with many benefits for the tribe, and that they do not come to the ultraruns in the US anymore. Among the more memorable personalities he describes are the woman runner from the bay area who won many of the ultraraces in the 90's, Scott Jurek, who plays a central role in the climatic race in the book, Barefoot Ted, la brujita Jen and her surfer boyfriend Billy. Perhaps even more memorable for me was the section of the book on Dr. Joe Vigil and his seeking a link between character and running while observing the Tarahumara. The central character of the book, of course, is El Caballo Blanco, who, it turns out, is a Boulderite who lives among the Tarahuamara in the Copper Canyon for months on end. It's the discovery of him in the Copper Canyon that opens the book, and his personal history after the great race that ends the book.

Really it is the joy of running that animates the book. Although it is not apparent at the beginning, when McDougall is looking for cures from his running injuries and is told time and again how bad running is for his body, the book highlights the central role that running holds for the development of humans--it is central to the survival of homo sapiens--and how it has gone "bad" under the influence of the corporate development of the modern running shoe. Our natural leg motion is overcontrolled by the technology of the shoe. The closer that we come to running barefoot, the sooner that we return to a more natural running stride--much shorter stride, higher leg cadence, with a midfoot strike--and the more that we can enjoy injury free running, and the sooner that we can experience many of the almost spiritual benefits of running. It certainly has a strong appeal, but whether or not it matches up to reality or not is a whole different story.

Author: McDougall, Christopher

Date Published: 2009

Length: 11 hr 27 min

Narrator: Sanders, Fred

This Side of Paradise

Another one of those books that I liked in college that I look back on as pretty silly now. I started out being really bored with Amory Blaine and his mother, and thought them silly and shallow and self centered, which, of course, they were meant to be. And I never really warmed to Amory after that, although I found bits of the book to be a little less silly than others. I couldn't have cared less about his travails at Princeton and which society that he was inducted into or whether he flunked out of college geometry and hence "ruined" his chances for BMOC status. I certainly could not understand his infatuation with Rosalind Connage, who was even more shallow than Amory. Finally, his distribe against the industrialist just did it for me. While I probably agreed with most of what Amory said, I was aghast with his attitude and his cocksureness. I guess that's really the old man in me who is aghast at many of the attitudes that I copped when I was 23.

Author: Fitzgerald, F. Scott

Date Published: 1923

Length: 9 hr 48 min

Narrator: Woodman, Jeff