ebook9781461412786d4325

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At both a micro-information level and a macro-societal level, the concepts of ‚Äúknowledge‚Äù and ‚Äúwisdom‚Äù are complementary ‚Äì in both decisions and in social structures and institutions.¬† At the decision level, knowledge is concerned with how to make a proper choice of means, where ‚Äúbest‚Äù is measured as the efficiency toward achieving an end.¬† Wisdom is concerned with how to make a proper choice of ends¬† that attain ‚Äúbest‚Äù values. At a societal level, knowledge is managed through science/technology and innovation.¬† And while science/technology is society’s way to create new means with high efficiencies, they reveal nothing about values.¬† Technology can be used for good or for evil, to make the world into a garden or to destroy all life.¬† It is societal wisdom which should influence the choice of proper ends — ends to make the world a garden. How can society make progress in wisdom as well as knowledge?¬† Historically, the disciplines of the physical sciences and biology have provided scientific foundations for societal knowledge¬† But the social science disciplines of sociology, economics, political science have not provided a similar scientific foundation for societal wisdom.¬† To redress this gap, Frederick Betz examines several cases in recent history that display a fundamental paradox between scientific/technological achievement with devastating social effects (i.e., historical events of ideological dictatorships in Russia, Germany, China, and Yugoslavia). He builds a new framework for applying social science perspectives to explain societal histories and social theory.¬† Emerging from this methodological and empirical investigation is a general topological theory of societal dynamics.¬† This theory and methodology can be used to integrate history and social science toward establishing grounded principles of societal wisdom.¬†