The Heart of Judgment: Practical Wisdom, Neuroscience, and Narrative

Description

The Heart of Judgment explores the nature, historical significance, and continuing relevance of practical wisdom. Primarily a work in moral and political thought, it also relies extensively on research in cognitive neuroscience to confirm and extend our understanding of the faculty of judgment. Ever since the ancient Greeks first discussed practical wisdom, the faculty of judgment has been an important topic for philosophers and political theorists. It remains one of the virtues most demanded of our public officials. The greater the liberties and responsibilities accorded to citizens in democratic regimes, the more the health and welfare of society rest upon their exercise of good judgment. While giving full credit to the roles played by reason and deliberation in good judgment, the book underlines the central importance of intuition, emotion, and worldly experience.

Leslie Paul Thiele is Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida. A recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science and Research Council of Canada, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, he is the author of Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul, Timely Meditations: Martin Heidegger and Postmodern Politics, and Thinking Politics, 2nd Edition. He was selected as a University of Florida Reserach Foundation Professor (1997-2000) and was nominated for the Teacher/Scholar of the Year Award in 1997.

"This is an interesting and worthy effort that suggests an earnest, hard-fought engagement with the materials of cognitive science and psychobiology...and an equally earnest effort to bring those materials to bear on venerable issues of political theory. As such, it is a welcome addition to the literature." Peter J. Steinberger, Reed College, Perspectives on Politics "It (The Heart of Judgment) dispenses with preexisting molds of how political theory dispenses with preexisting molds of how political theory "should be done", and does so with daring and ambition. Moreover, it makes significant lateral contributions as it proceeds with its central argument..It is Thiele's credit that he is able to build an impressive architectonic for such a bridge...A valiant and valuable attempt to break the boundaries of traditional political theory." Diego A. von Vacano, Theory and Event