Stephen Hall is the author of critically acclaimed histories of contemporary science and has been a contributing writer and editor at the New York Times Magazine. In his new book, Wisdom, Mr. Hall explores the concept, which he reports is no longer the exclusive domain of theology and philosophy. Clinical psychology and neurobiology have elbowed their way into the subject in recent decadesand their investiga- tions and investigators make up much of the book. Hall details brain-scan experiments intended to elucidate at a neuronal level components of wisdom such as ethics and also cites studies that rely on interviews with older people about their life experiences. From the author's accounts, it doesn't seem as though the scientist in the lab coat offers better definitions of wisdom than the sage in the toga. An essential ineffability about wisdom dogs both the empiricist and the theorist, according to Hall, but, not willing to concede futility in the hunt for wisdom, he suggests it is to be sought in family life and interpersonal relationships—a practical proposition on which his readers can reflect.
