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Chapter 2 - The Moral Purpose of Wisdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2025

By
Daniel Lapsley
Edited by
Patrick Hill  and
Anthony L. Burrow
Patrick Hill
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
Anthony L. Burrow
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

What it means to flourish and to live well the life that is good for one to live is typically addressed in psychology by formidable research programs on the Big Three constructs of purpose, wisdom, and moral identity. Yet each construct fails to address, and so is unable to resist, what Kekes (1995) calls the permanent adversities of contingency, conflict, and evil. These adversities are inescapable features of human agency that will compromise good lives in pursuit of purpose, wisdom, and character unless the resources of moral wisdom are cultivated. This chapter first discusses why contingency, conflict, and evil are permanent adversities and how they constitute impediments to flourishing. The second part gives an account of moral wisdom and the means at its disposal for controlling permanent adversities. It will be seen that the work of moral wisdom is strongly metacognitive, involving both knowledge (declarative, procedural, and conditional) and regulation (planning, selection, control, monitoring, and evaluation) processes. The remaining sections will take up the implication of moral wisdom for the Big Three constructs of purpose, wisdom, and moral identity, and the theoretical modifications required of them to account for good lives lived well.

Keywords

moral wisdommetacognitionpurposemoral identity

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Purpose In Life As Ancient but Nascent
Perspectives from Psychology, Philosophy, and Human Development
 , pp. 13 - 44
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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