What is wisdom?

Who is wiser: a professor who has won the Nobel Prize in Physics or a shepherd from a village in Ethiopia? The first reaction to such a question might be a smile, disbelief, or even doubt about the seriousness of the one asking. Thank you. The matter is a bit more complicated than it seems. The answer comes from the wisdom model proposed by Paul Baltes and Ursula Staudinger (Baltes & Smith), known as the Berlin Wisdom Model. In the Max Planck Institute in Berlin during the 1980s and 1990s, when many thought there was nothing more to discover, the capacity for reflection, empathy, and problem-solving were recognized as core attributes of wisdom. Interestingly, after extensive research, Baltes and Smith concluded that wisdom is a rare phenomenon in society. Fascinating, isn't it? Does this mean that most of us are foolish? They provided an answer to this question as well, and it is: most people are not wise.