In place of esoteric or spiritual concepts of wisdom, this scientific research has focused on secular definitions, drawn from philosophy, including Aristotle’s view of practical wisdom – ‘the set of skills, dispositions and policies that help us understand and deliberate about what’s good in life and helps us to choose the best means for pursuing those things over the course of the life’, according to the philosopher Valerie Tiberius. (This was, incidentally, much the same definition that Franklin used.8)
