The Importance of Aiming for Practical Wisdom: Why We Should Nest Epistemic Goals in Phronetic Goals

Abstract

Recent scholarship in learning sciences has joined wider calls in social sciences for research to aim toward an updated version of Aristotle’s virtue of phronesis, often inspired by Flyvbjerg (e.g., 2001). We argue that learning goals for participants in educational pursuits and therefore designs for learning environments should orient toward phronesis, variously translated as “practical wisdom,” “prudence,” or “wise action.” We provide a rationale for this proposed shift, based on education aiming toward flourishing. We argue this should not amount to ignoring the epistemic, but rather nesting epistemic in phronetic, and illustrate with examples.