Phronesis is the Aristotelian notion of practical wisdom. In this collected series, phronesis is explored as an alternate way of considering professional knowledge. In the present context dominated by technical rationalities and instrumentalist approaches, a re-examination of the concept of phronesis offers a fundamental re-visioning of the educational aims in professional schools and continuing professional education programs. This book originated from a conversation amongst an interdisciplinary group of scholars from education, health, philosophy, and sociology, who share concerns that something of fundamental importance – of moral signi?cance – is missing from the vision of what it means to be a professional. The contributors consider the ways in which phronesis offers a generative possibility for reconsidering the professional knowledge of practitioners. The question at the centre of this inquiry is: “If we take phronesis seriously as an organising framework for professional knowledge, what are the implications for professional education and practice?” A multiplicity of understandings emerge as to what is meant by phronesis and how it might be reinterpreted, understood, applied, and extended in a world radically different to that of the progenitor of the term, Aristotle. For those concerned with professional life this is a conversation not to be missed.
Phronesis, or practical wisdom, has interested philosophers (and more recently psychologists) for millennia. In the last decade or so, a bandwagon of diverse academics has been working with and celebrating the notion of phronesis as a metacognitive capacity, guiding morally aspirational cognition and action. In Phronesis: Retrieving Practical Wisdom in Psychology, Philosophy, and Education, Kristján Kristjánsson and Blaine J. Fowers work through some of the relevant puzzles created by the recent phronesis discourse, filling gaps in the current literatures, and pushing the research agenda in new directions. The book does so in a way that is radically interdisciplinary and draws in equal measure on insights from psychology, philosophy, and education. Through its revised and applied Aristotelianism, the book makes a contribution to vital ongoing debates within moral psychology, moral philosophy, professional ethics, and moral education about the salience of phronesis - addressing the topic accessibly both for academics in key disciplines and for a wider readership of intellectually minded readers. In addition, it offers practical advice about the development and education of phronesis in different areas of professional practice and secondary and college-level education.
Preface 9 Part 1 Aristotle, Social Research, and Action Research 13 1. Introduction -- The Challenge of Phrónêsis 15 1.1 Three Kinds of General Theory 25 1.2 Aristotle and Critical Action Research 33 2. Action Research Approaching Phrónêsis 39 2.1 A Philosopher Defending Action Research 40 2.2 Making Social Science Matter 43 2.3 Abandoning Techniques 45 Part 2 Reading Aristotle -- Limits and Possibilities for Phrónêsis 49 3. Virtues -- Intellectual and Ethical 53 3.1 Particulars of Ethical Virtues 59 4. Phrónêsis and the Other Intellectual Virtues 65 4.1 Theoretical Knowledge, and Knowledge about Things We Influence 68 4.1.1 Overlaps and Intermeshes 74 4.2 Phrónêsis as an Intellectual Virtue 77 4.2.1 Excursus: Knowledge Forms and Ways of Knowing in Aristotle 79 4.2.1.1 Praxis, Poiêsis, Khrêsis, Páthos And the Various Forms of the Epistêmai 81 4.2.1.2 Theoretical and Practical Truth 94 4.2 (Continued) Phrónêsis as an Intellectual Virtue 97 4.3 Phrónêsis and Rhetoric, Phrónêsis and Practical Syllogisms 105 4.3.1 The relationship to rhetoric 106 4.3.2 The relationship to practical syllogisms 111 5. Phrónêsis on Means and Ends, Phrónêsis and General Knowledge 115 5.1 Means and Ends, and Kinds of Causes 115 5.1.1 Poiêsis Makes Things, Praxis Makes Perfect 122 5.1.2 "Professional" Deliberations and Deductions 132 5.2 Knowledge, General and Particular 138 5.2.1 General Knowledge, Appropriate Knowledge, Knowledge in Action 138 5.2.2 Héxis (Habitus), and Empeiria (Experience) 149 5.2.3 Knowing Particulars 157 5.2.3.1 By What? 158 5.2.3.2 How? 160 5.2.3.3 Preconditions for a Universally Flexible Consideration 165 6. Developing and Defining Virtue 181 6.1 Developing Virtue 182 6.1.1 Epistêmê and Virtue through the Formation of Habit, Once More 186 6.1.2 What "Means" Means 194 6.1.3 Practical Development with a Hinge to It, the Question of Standards Again 196 6.2 Defining Virtue 205 6.2.1 Nóêsis as Dialogue, or, the Reason Why Aristotle Insists on Letting Phrónêsis Deliberate about Means Only 212 6.2.1.1 The Unfolded Know-How of Nous 214 6.2.1.2 The Topica and the Enfolded Habitus of Dialectics 217 6.2.1.3 The Philosopher, the Dialectician, and Experience 224 6.2.1.3.1 Dialogical Peculiarities 231 6.2.1.3.2 Dialogue and Experience 237 6.2.1.3.3 Basic Principle, Beginning, Medium, and End 251 6.2.1.4 Ways of Learning 256 6.2.1.5 Self-Evident First Principles? 263 6.2.1.6 Praxis1, and Praxis2 267 6.2.2 The Ethical Works do not Deliberate about Means, They Develop and Define Ends 271 6.2.3 Epistêmê, Virtue, and Phrónêsis Defined 281 6.3 Who Develops and Defines? The Art and Practice of Architectonics 292 7. Eudaimonia and Wisdom as "The Highest Practical Good"; Aristotelian Phron-Ethics, Theor-Ethics, and the Way of the Intellectual Commons 299 7.1 Kinds of Theory, Kinds of Practice 301 7.2 Ethics and Politics as Methodological Guidelines for Autonomous Practitioners 313 7.2.1 The Laws of Virtue 316 7.2.2 Tékhnê and Phrónêsis - At the Parting of the Ways 324 7.3 The Wisdom of the Commons - Common Wisdom 327 7.3.1 Tà Koiná - The Commons 333 7.3.2 The Common Skholê 340 7.4 Theor-Ethics and Primary Friendship 342 7.4.1 The Noetic "I" and the Psychological "Me" 349 7.4.2 Theorethical Interventions? 359 7.5 The Way of Theor-Ethics 361 7.5.1 Ethical Excellence - Settling with the Best "for Us", i.e. for the Second Best "Absolutely" 371 7.6 The Ways of Politics - Continuous Learning in Common 385 7.6.1 Community: What Are the Things Common? 387 7.6.2 Oikos, Pólis, and Constitutions 392 7.6.3 Developing Concord - The Ethico-Political Role of Dialogical Gatherings 399 7.6.4 Different Concepts of Politics 413 7.6.5 Unity and Diversity in the Pólis 422 7.6.6 The Koinópolis as Panarchy Aristocracy Suspended and Transcended 434 7.6.7 Religious Politics? 447 Part 3 Aristotelian Action Research - Wisdom and Eudaimonia Transposed, Social Research Transformed 455 8. Neo-Epistemic, Dialogical Action Research 459 9. From Oikos to Pólis, and Beyond 467 10. Aristotle, Marx, and Modern Work Life 479 11. Aristotle Suspended 493 12. Epilogue 503 References 509 Appendix 525 Index 527
Practice Wisdom: Values and Interpretations brings diverse views and interpretations to an exploration of what wisdom in professional practice means and can become: academically, practically and inspirationally.
People professions - such as social work, teaching, nursing, ministry and counselling - are at heart ethical or moral enterprises. Much recent theorizing has been concerned to show that effective professional deliberation and judgement cannot be reduced either to technical rationality or to simple obedience to general occupational procedures or prescriptions. Professional judgement would seem to require the development of a distinctive mode of practical (ethical) reflection or 'wisdom' - perhaps along the lines of Aristotle's 'phronesis' or practical wisdom. Reflection is required to address such key professional concerns as: What is the impact of official prescription and regulation on professional judgement? How should conflicts of professional judgement and public/political accountability be resolved? How might one reconcile tensions between universal justice and equality and particular client need? What is the role of emotion and/or affect in 'people professional' practice? This ground-breaking work addresses, in a thoroughly multidisciplinary way, the central question of the nature of professional judgement and deliberation that has recently come to the fore in the academic literature of profession and professionalism. It proposes a marked shift - in theory, practice and policy-making - away from technical-rational approaches to professional decision-making in favour of reflection and deliberation informed by responsible moral judgement. This reflects a significant progressive trend in this literature by taking practical wisdom, rather than technical rationality, to lie at the heart of professional judgement. It is unique in bringing together key authors from different professional fields to address the issue of professional wisdom in a cross-professional and multidisciplinary way.
People professions - such as social work, teaching, nursing, ministry and counselling - are at heart ethical or moral enterprises. Much recent theorizing has been concerned to show that effective professional deliberation and judgement cannot be reduced either to technical rationality or to simple obedience to general occupational procedures or prescriptions. Professional judgement would seem to require the development of a distinctive mode of practical (ethical) reflection or 'wisdom' - perhaps along the lines of Aristotle's 'phronesis' or practical wisdom. Reflection is required to address such key professional concerns as: What is the impact of official prescription and regulation on professional judgement? How should conflicts of professional judgment and public/political accountability be resolved? How might one reconcile tensions between universal justice and equality and particular client need? What is the role of emotion and/or affect in 'people professional' practice? This ground-breaking work addresses, in a thoroughly multidisciplinary way, the central question of the nature of professional judgement and deliberation that has recently come to the fore in the academic literature of profession and professionalism. It proposes a marked shift - in theory, practice and policy-making - away from technical-rational approaches to professional decision-making in favour of reflection and deliberation informed by responsible moral judgement. This reflects a significant progressive trend in this literature by taking practical wisdom, rather than technical rationality, to lie at the heart of professional judgement. It is unique in bringing together key authors from different professional fields to address the issue of professional wisdom in a cross-professional and multidisciplinary way.
Back to the Rough Ground is a philosophical investigation of practical knowledge, with major import for professional practice and the ethical life in modern society. Its purpose is to clarify the kind of knowledge that informs good practice in a range of disciplines such as education, psychotherapy, medicine, management, and law. Through reflection on key modern thinkers who have revived cardinal insights of Aristotle, and a sustained engagement with the Philosopher himself, it presents a radical challenge to the scientistic assumptions that have dominated how these professional domains have been conceived, practiced, and institutionalized.
People professions - such as social work, teaching, nursing, ministry and counselling - are at heart ethical or moral enterprises. Much recent theorizing has been concerned to show that effective professional deliberation and judgement cannot be reduced either to technical rationality or to simple obedience to general occupational procedures or prescriptions. Professional judgement would seem to require the development of a distinctive mode of practical (ethical) reflection or 'wisdom' - perhaps along the lines of Aristotle's 'phronesis' or practical wisdom. Reflection is required to address s.
This book is founded on the idea that ‘becoming’ is the most useful defining concept for a new ‘professional’ class whose members understand that development in their working lives is an open-ended, lifelong process of refinement and learning. In a world where being a ‘professional’ is an increasingly indistinct notion and where better education and technology are challenging ‘professional’ norms, it is imperative that we no longer think in terms of an exclusive, ‘Anglo-American’, knowledge-rich class of workers. Exploring the implications of this insight for professions including nursing, teaching, social work, engineering and the clergy, this volume aims to encourage informed debate on what it means to be a ‘professional’ in this globalised 21st century. The book argues that ‘becoming’ a professional is a lifelong process in which individual professional identities are constructed through formal education, workplace interactions and popular culture. The book advocates the ‘ongoingness’ of developing a professional self throughout one’s professional life. What emerges is a concept of becoming a professional different from the isolated, rugged, individualistic approach to traditional professional practice as represented in popular culture. It is a book for the reflective professional.
Over the last twenty years Further Education colleges in England have expanded their Higher Education provision significantly. Higher Education in Further Education is a major force accounting for approximately ten percent of Higher Education students (Parry 2005). The thesis takes a concept from Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics and applies it to Higher Education in Further Education in England. The notion of phronesis adopted for this study differs from literal interpretations of Aristotle such as adopted by Kristyansson, (2005) but accords with adaptations of the concept by such as Eisner (2002), Birmingham (2003, 2004) and Hagar (2000). The interpretation adopted for the thesis is that phronesis is wise, practical knowledge which is deliberative, depends on judgement and is based on circumstances. It is about practicalities and the interaction between the universal and the particular. When applied to teaching it can be briefly summarised as an approach which bases the profession of teaching on practical knowledge and recognises the artistry of the teaching activity (Eisner, 2002). The argument of the thesis is that phronesis could provide a model for the teaching and quality management of Higher Education (HE) in Further Education (FE) at Hull College. The thesis demonstrates that in the face of pressures of commodification, performativity and vocationalisation in the national and global environment, students, staff and managers at the College hold beliefs more in tune with an approach based on phronesis rather than with that of The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) or The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). As a result phronesis could provide a more effective foundation for teaching and quality management. After an analysis of the academic and official literature, the empirical research adopted a case study method based on semi structured interviews with students, teaching staff and managers. The empirical evidence reinforced the academic evidence that there is a managerial imperative in colleges which leads to teaching staff and managers facing a range of pressures. There are pressures on their beliefs and what they identified as their proper professional activity: teaching, reflecting, debating, updating their subject knowledge and engaging in scholarship. However, these pressures are moderated by the commitment of the teaching staff and managers to delivering a particular HE in FE experience, in partnership with their students, in accordance with the features of phronesis. Empirical and theoretical evidence supports the conjecture that phronesis could provide a model for the teaching and quality management of HE in FE, at Hull College. The views of students, staff and managers were broadly in accord with the main features of phronesis, rather than those of performativity and commodification. Their views were also consistent with a vocational education situated in phronesis, rather than with a vocationalism which is part of the 5 managerialist, performative and commodificationist agendas. Although there are pressures from all of these agendas threatening the application of phronesis, there is evidence that it is phronesis which should underpin the teaching, management and indeed, the profession for teachers of HE in FE. Recommendations focus on acknowledging the distinct role of HE in FE: its quality management; staff participation in reflection, scholarly activity and vocational updating; the recognition of students as partners in learning.
