What the First Principles of Wisdom Mean for A Wiser World
Understanding wisdom from first principles gives us a foundation for the whole project of A Wiser World. So before we move on, let us look at what the implications of these principles are.
The goal of A Wiser World
The overarching goal for the project is to find and teach wisdom, such that people can have good lives. Now that we know what wisdom consists of, we can specify the task of A Wiser World in more detail. The purpose is to help people get a better understanding of their current situations, of their values, and of how the world works, such that they can figure out which actions they need to take in order to bring about situations that make their life good.
To the extent that there are general truths about these matters that apply to most if not all people, the task of A Wiser World is to find these truths and teach them. In particular, the goal is to find the first principles, since they are the fundamental most general facts.
How to achieve the goal
In order for A Wiser World to achieve the goal of finding wisdom, in particular first principles, the project needs to:
–Use the knowledge method (OCHPA), which means making observations, comparing these to expectations, forming hypotheses (as general as possible), making predictions, and performing actions to test these predictions. And then repeat this cycle over and over, until the first principles are found.
In practice, this means that all articles published on the platform must be continually improved until it is clear that they really contain the first principles.
–Use the help of others, which means taking part of ideas and observations of other people, and collaborating with people from all over the world.
In practice, this involves looking up existing research and theories on the topics investigated, and having forums where discussions can take place to make progress collaboratively.
In order for A Wiser World to be able to achieve the goal of teaching wisdom the project needs to:
–Make sure that as many people as possible have access, which means that there are several different formats that the ideas are presented in, and that it does not require special skills or resources in order to take part of the material.
In practice this involves presenting the information both in text format on the website, and as videos on Youtube. Further along, this should be expanded to include audio format. It also involves providing all the information for free so that people with less economic resources aren’t prevented from taking part of the ideas.
–Be transparent about the sources and the reasoning behind the ideas, which means showing clearly what observations that the ideas rely on, and how they follow from there.
In practice, the platform will present the following information at the end of each article:
*Observations (from which the principles have been derived)
*Hypotheses (both the “winning” hypothesis as well as competing hypotheses)
*Evaluation of hypotheses (a clear explanation as to why the chosen principle best explains the observations, and what the others are lacking)
*Any remaining problems and how one may go about solving them
–Allow people to give feedback, which means giving people the possibility of sharing how they interpret the ideas that are presented, what they find confusing or even think is wrong, how they think that the ideas can be improved.
In practice, this involves allowing people to comment on the articles and videos, and to be active in discussion forums. As well as responding to the feedback so that a dialogue can ensue.
–Investigate whether people can apply the ideas in their lives and make their lives and societies better, which means finding out whether people are able to turn the ideas into action, instead of just knowing things in their head, and whether this really has the positive effects that they are supposed to.
In practice, this involves making use of psychological knowledge of how we help people change their behaviors and not only their knowledge, and also finding ways to check whether people are successful in this regard. This could be in the form of general feedback, or in the form of surveys that are sent out.
These then, are the guiding principles for A Wiser World.
Now that we have established these, we can move on and tackle the first major task: finding the first principles of psychology.
Next: The First Principles of Psychology – Overview
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