UCL Discovery

Abstract

We are in a state of impending crisis. And the fault lies in part with academia. For two centuries or so, academia has been devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and technological know-how. This has enormously increased our power to act which has, in turn, brought us both all the great benefits of the modern world and the crises we now face. We urgently need to bring about a revolution in academic inquiry, so that the basic aim becomes to seek and promote wisdom, and not just acquire knowledge – wisdom being the capacity to realize what is of value in life for oneself and others, wisdom thus including knowledge and technological know-how, but much else besides. I spell out two arguments which, I claim, demonstrate that we do indeed need the indicated revolution, from knowledge to wisdom, in the interests of both reason and humanity. I list nineteen intellectual and institutional changes that are needed for this revolution to occur, and I record a discussion with David Price and others associated with the Grand Challenges Programme at University College London which is attempting to put into practice the first steps of the academic revolution we so urgently require.