Is Practical Wisdom Dead?

A friend of mine, Fulvio di Blasi, recently published a book entitled The Death of the Phronimos, which we could translate as “the death of the wise man,” or “the death of the man of sound judgment.” I confess that I have not yet read the book, but the title intrigues me and captures a fundamental truth about what we have been living quite vividly for the past two years: many of the judgments of scientists, public officials, and citizens seemed to exhibit few of the distinctive features of “common sense” and sound judgment.

People with medical credentials appeared on an almost daily basis on national television to announce the latest “science” and make recommendations about how to keep the pandemic under control. While scientific authority was invoked almost obsessively, and PCR test numbers were recited religiously almost on a daily basis, there was little evidence of the sort of deep, broad, and out-of-the-box thinking one needs to confront a crisis on the fly.

Undoubtedly there are …