****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
No book is perfect, and neither is any opinion, but "Wisdom" deserves five stars as a good attempt to discuss an important and surprisingly under-discussed topic. I read it in 2010, and after reading many uncomplimentary reviews, read it again to see if I missed something -- but my original favorable opinion stands. Hall seems to resemble a friendly tour guide who broadly admires his subject, rather than a pompous world authority who wants us to think she/he knows everything about their topic. As the author admits, it's a humbling and ever-mysterious topic that most people would prefer to either shy away from or to speak with dogmatism.Purpose: Hall wrote the book to systematically compare classical accounts of wisdom with sophisticated modern studies from neuroscientists, behavioral economists, and psychologists. Hall seems to find the two complement each other nicely.Organization: Hall begins by discussing the nature of wisdom (he concludes its need is omnipresent but is still a vague and changeable noun best defined by its results rather than what it "is"). He then gives an excellent classification of the components of wisdom, specifically, Emotional Regulation, Evaluative Judgment, Humaneness/ Moral Competence, Compassion/ Decency, Humility, Altruism/ Justice, Patience, and Managing Uncertainty. He covers each with a good chapter. He then describes how we cultivate Wisdom, and why it is more than just the sum of its parts.Documentation: Given the potentially controversial nature of the subject, Hall has (wisely) chosen to give a sound Bibliography and a reasonably good outline of supporting Notes.Strong Points: To paraphrase an old saying, it's not that this study was done perfectly, as that it was done well. Hall writes interestingly, with a good blend of detailed description and broad coverage. I found something of value on nearly every page and I felt he covered the foundation well without going into so much depth that I lost sight of the big picture. The book seems written from a non-confrontational, reasonably objective, and informative perspective (although it's pretty easy to discover his political preference). After the tour is complete, I think that Wisdom would consider Mr Hall a reasonably good tour guide.Weak Points: Obviously, someone will find their favorite author(s) or research article(s) missing from the Bibliography: I thought his coverage of modern "wise people" left out a number of good Buddhist practitioners, for example. Hall has a non-scientific background, and few of his previous books directly cover much about Wisdom, so although you will gain a good starting perspective, you won't be bogged down in depth.Bottom Line: I thought this book gave an excellent vantage point from which to broadly survey a valuable part of our human nature, using accepted classical insights and modern scientific/economic explorations. His classification, and his discussion, seemed to be cogent and valuable, and it seems a good place to begin, rather than a comprehensive guide that tells you it knows everything about this subject. His last paragraph gives an interviewee's plea to "leave some mystery [in the topic of Wisdom], and Hall has nicely obliged.
