Wisdom as a dimension is central to sociology and concerns how people create understanding by combining reflection with action. In sociology, action and reflexivity have been central themes for understanding how individuals act and shape their surroundings, while at the same time being influenced by them
Reflexive action: a balance between action and reflection in various forms, such as education, consciousness, raising (Freire, 2000), pactivity (Bornemark, 2020), and cynicism (Sloterdijk, 1984). In ABT, actors are assumed to have limited, varied, and distributed cognition, where their perception of reality may vary in terms of how well it is connected to reality (Simon, 1957; Clark & Chalmers, 1998; Bennett, 2010; Callon, 2021, Latour, 2005, Paulsen, 2013 (in section 3.3.2). There are also unconscious and preconscious thoughts; thus, reflexivity cannot reach into every nook and cranny of the human mind. Reflexivity can differ in content and quality in how it addresses the pursuit of the good life. The combination of reflexivity with action in these various forms: for example, projects (Archer, 2007, 93), practices, initiating something new in the political sphere (Arendt, 1998), the pursuit of the good (Aristotle, 1998), problem, solving and adaptation (Dewey), or performance (Butler). Above all, the focus here is on wisdom as phronesis, a practical wisdom, in how to act when it is not entirely clear what the best course of action is, but rather involves experimentation in the pursuit and creation of the good life (Aristotle, 1998; Flyvbjerg, 2006).
Sociology offers several concepts that help us capture higher, order balances of wisdom as a dimension of equilibrium. Freire uses the concept of “conscientization” (raising awareness), in which a praxis of iteration between action and reflection is created, where individuals learn about their own oppression through the cultivation of curiosity as a driving factor (Freire, 2000). In adult education research, the concept of “transformative learning” has been used to describe situations where learning changes one’s self, image and practices. Wisdom involves striking a balance in seeing how the pursuit of a good life can be achieved through the various dimensions of ABT. Wisdom in ABT derives its multifaceted content from the other balancing dimensions. It is linked to the civic struggle, a caring curiosity about oneself and the surrounding world, a consideration of where focus should best be directed, how to best struggle and collaborate, and so on. Wisdom is about navigating moral uncertainty. Ethics must be put into practice; the ethical life requires a life of action to steer it in the right direction. Wisdom is the union of right thinking with right action. Right thinking is a form of passive conformity, an enlightened false consciousness (Sloterdijk, 1984), unless it is united with right action. Thinking is made concrete through action, in which the actor often discovers that reality was more complicated than it first appeared, requiring experimentation and testing to solve new problems that arise. Reflexive action is a close encounter with one’s own thoughts, without becoming myopic and losing perspective. Action must respond to avoid being absorbed by processes that lead one further away from the good life.
Reflexive action, as an umbrella term, also encompasses creativity as a phenomenon. Creativity and innovation can be directed toward different goals. Creative citizenship involves being creative across various domains to build a better society. This creative work must involve experimentation and tinkering (bricolage), as practiced, for example, by Jane Addams and others at Hull, House, which launched the Settlement movement (Trost & Lewin, 2010). This experimentation is central to a high degree of reflexive action because we operate within a complex system where it is difficult to devise an exact plan; instead, we build and learn as we go. Entrepreneurs in the marketplace and in politics are prime examples of this.
Reflexive action as a construct can be defined by the concept of civic education (Bohlin, 2018). Genuine education is a reflexive action, a process of discovery in which knowledge creates new emotions, configurations, practices, and identities. Enhancing education is a goal, but it is also a process that must be initiated. Building what psychologist Dan Kahan has termed “scientific curiosity” is absolutely central (Kahan, 2017); a desire to learn that already exists but can be strengthened in various ways is absolutely central. For example, deriving pleasure from reading books on philosophy, something far too few people have done. Civic education emphasizes that education can have value without being used in the struggle for civic rights, but not as much value as it could.
Imbalances
Below are various imbalances in this dimension.
Non, reflexive action
Pseudo-action (Žižek, Adorno, 1991): Pseudo, action refers to actions carried out without sufficiently reflecting on whether they actually make a difference.This can be found in many well, intentioned projects where one does not know, or even attempt to find out, whether the efforts have any real effect. In the field of philanthropy, the Effective Altruism movement has taken steps to make giving more effective, which is positive. However, this movement has also faced criticism for avoiding work on the root causes of global injustice (Wenar, 2024). Pseudo, action risks becoming a form of therapy for the actor themselves, where the main effect is that the person feels better because of the belief that they are helping others, rather than actually bringing about change.
Incorporated action: Incorporated action can involve creativity that is used unethically or not used at all. It can also involve apathy, where a person lacks faith in their creative ability, or where that ability has not been given the opportunity to develop. An imbalance arises when creativity is focused on private projects, such as entertainment, gaming, or Machiavellian strategies to secure as many dates and sexual relationships as possible through apps like Tinder. This behavior risks undermining citizens’ trust, depending on how unethically it is carried out. It can be described as private Machiavellianism, as opposed to civic ethical Machiavellianism, in which strategic struggle is used to avoid domination by an elite (Bohlin, 2018).
Hyperactivity: Byung, Chul Han (2016, 39) describes hyperactivity as excessive activity without reflection. This includes workaholism and a state of constant busyness that leaves no room for rest. Hyperactivity becomes a form of imbalance in which actions lack deeper meaning or reflection.
Commodified communication: Communication can serve as a foundation for thinking together, but when it becomes commodified, it loses its reflective function. According to Riesman, language today is used more as a consumer good than as a means of creating genuine relationships or understanding. Language becomes a tool for fitting into a group, rather than for expressing oneself intimately or reflectively:
"Language itself becomes a sort of consumer good. It is used neither to direct the work economy, nor to relate the self to others in any truly intimate way, nor to recall the past, nor yet as sheer word play. Rather, it is used in peer groups today much as popular tunes seem to be used: as a set of tokens by which one establishes that one is ‘in’ and by which one participates in the peer group’s arduous self, socializing ‘work.’” Riesman, in Mestrovic (1996, p. 55).
Commodified communication risks eroding the possibility of genuine dialogue and reflection, which weakens our ability to think and act together.
Non-reflexive thinking
Pseudo, thinking: Pseudo, thinking is an imbalance in which one thinks a great deal, often with a focus on building an identity as an intellectual, but without developing intellectual virtues such as curiosity, thoroughness, independence, and courage. The result is incomplete, unsystematic, and unclear thoughts. This can lead to narcissism, where thinking is used as a “purified identity”, a sense of understanding the world without being able to change it (Riesman 1950). Curiosity can also be directed toward both meaningful and meaningless, ethical or unethical goals.
Thin and thick false consciousness: According to Scott (1990), false consciousness can be “thin,” implying resignation in the face of oppression, or “thick,” where the individual actively consents to it. Individuals may oscillate between these states depending on the circumstances and the form of ideological influence to which they are exposed.
Overreliance on “common sense”: A form of intellectual stagnation in which “common sense” is viewed as the only valid basis for understanding the world. Those who go beyond this common sense and question its limitations are seen as irrational.
Pseudo, education and pretense: Pseudo, education refers to believing oneself to be educated while possessing only a limited and superficial education. Pretense is used to signal status and boast about one’s education, but often lacks a deeper civic education.
Hypocrisy, doublethink, and bullshit: Hypocrisy and doublethink involve holding contradictory ideas at the same time. Bullshitification means that both individuals and organizations are dominated by content and actions that lack real meaning. Graeber (2019) describes “bullshit jobs” as jobs without purpose or real contribution. Bullshitification can also occur through unnecessary processes and theatrics, which create cynicism and emotional dissonance. Bullshit can be a result of the “organization of hypocrisy” (Brunsson, 2007). According to Nils Brunsson, the organization of hypocrisy means that organizations manage conflicting demands by separating discourse, decisions, and action. They say what stakeholders want to hear (e.g., support for sustainability), make decisions based on internal needs (e.g., profit maximization), and act according to practical requirements, even if this contradicts their statements. This hypocrisy serves as a strategy for flexibility, legitimacy, and adaptation, helping organizations survive and navigate a complex and demanding environment.
Functional stupidity: According to Alvesson and Spicer, functional stupidity involves adapting to something one recognizes as foolish and ceasing to question it (2012).
Secondary illiteracy: Enzensberger describes those with secondary illiteracy as literate individuals who do not use reading for reflection but solely as a functional tool in work and consumption. Post, literacy goes a step further, where people live as if they cannot read longer texts. Mark Fisher argues that capitalism contributes to this by prioritizing emotions over reflection, with a focus on images, short clips, and oral content (2011). This was reinforced by the advent of television and accelerated by social media and on, demand services. Post, literacy makes it harder to engage with demanding texts and contributes to depressive hedonism, where entertainment replaces meaningful activity. Fisher describes this as a result of an overloaded everyday life: “Only prisoners have time to read, and if you want to engage in a twenty, year, long research project funded by the state, you will have to kill someone.” (Fisher, 2011). This development undermines the ability to think critically and reflect more deeply on society.
Non, reflexive inaction
Fidgeting: Hartmut Rosa describes it as the “culture of the lowered gaze,” in which we constantly look down at our smartphones. This reflects a downward, looking gaze, a gesture of submission, or a crouching posture (Rosa, 2019, 182). Byung, Chul Han uses a similar metaphor and argues that, instead of acting, we nervously and frantically fiddle with our phones, an image of our time marked by distraction and restlessness.
Deskilling: Richard Sennett describes how modern people have become “deskilled” in their professional lives, private lives, and as citizens (2013). Through our advanced tools and technologies, we have become so dependent on experts that we are increasingly losing our sense of personal competence. This affects our ability to teach and nurture future generations (Alvesson 2019), and, by extension, our resilience in dealing with life’s challenges (Furedi, 2019). The rise of the “therapy culture” contributes to making people even more self, centered and homogenized, without guiding them toward a life characterized by meaning and citizenship. Alvesson argues that the increased stress in the workplace and education often stems from a lack of ability to handle the tasks we face (2013, 2021). In schools, this is evident in students with poor reading skills and inadequate study habits, which creates a cumulative deficit of knowledge and skills. Sennett argues that we have also lost the ability to collaborate, which is partly due to the short, term nature of the workplace, where a focus on career advancement and frequent job, hopping reduce the opportunity to build deep collaborative relationships. Many people lack insight into how poor they are at collaborating because they have never experienced truly effective collaboration. Martha Nussbaum has also pointed out how institutional constraints often prevent people from developing their full potential. Sennett warns that this erosion of skills renders us incapable of being “our own masters” and instead makes us increasingly dependent on others. Over time, this leads to a massive cumulative deficit of abilities and knowledge, with aging often exacerbating the problem through reduced mental flexibility rather than increased wisdom.
Reactionary passivity: Reactionary passivity is a form of passivity in which the individual prefers the status quo over change, resulting in a failure to either question or act against the prevailing state of injustice.
Epistemic egocentrism: A lack of understanding of the other side, in which one’s own knowledge is centered around one’s own ego (Martin in Campbell, 2024). It involves framing one’s own morality as superior to that of others.
Naive realism/naive technocratic realism (Popper, Friedman, 2020): A belief and perception that one can easily see the truth and reality exactly as they are. One generally believes that experts agree with one’s views and that solutions to societal problems are generally easy to devise.
Naive performativity: A naive belief that one’s theories, categories, and perspectives have no impact on the world in which one lives, even though classifications can change people and theories can be performative. (Callon, 1998; Hacking, 1995).
Reflexive inaction
Reflexive impotence. This is a diagnosis that Mark Fisher makes at the beginning of his book Capitalist Realism, and it is very common. Fisher defines it as follows:
“They know the situation is bad, but they also know they can’t do anything about it. Yet this ‘knowledge,’ this reflexivity, is not a passive observation of an already existing state of affairs. It is a self, fulfilling prophecy.” (Fisher, 2011, 41).
Fisher argues that this is an “unspoken worldview among young Britons” as well as among a large portion of the rest of the world’s population. Reflexive impotence has more often been referred to as cynicism.
Cynicism can be described as a passive intellectualism in which the individual constructs a “purified identity” (Reisman, 1950) based on understanding the world, while simultaneously believing that it cannot be changed. This attitude stands in contrast to cynicism, which, according to Sloterdijk (1987), prioritizes action over theory. Instead of leading to a liberating process of raising awareness (Freire, 2000), cynicism can become a barrier where one learns more about one’s oppression but fails to act. The depth of cynicism can be described as “shallow” or “deep,” depending on how deeply rooted one’s awareness of social problems is and how often one returns to this state to cope with social issues. It is a state of detached awareness, in which one understands the problems but acts as if one did not. C. Wright Mills describes how knowledge of the world’s problems can lead to powerlessness and frustration:
“The more we understand what is happening in the world, the more frustrated we often become, for our knowledge leads to feelings of powerlessness. We feel that we are living in a world in which the citizen has become a mere spectator or a forced actor, and that our personal experience is politically useless and our political will a minor illusion.” (Mills, 2000).
Cynicism thus becomes a form of intellectual paralysis in which powerlessness and resignation take over, rather than leading to action. This stands in contrast to Nietzsche’s idea of the “will to folly,” in which a certain degree of madness is necessary to dare to change and destabilize an excessive belief in reason. From this perspective, “mad reason” can serve as a tool for breaking through rational stagnation and opening doors to creative action and change.
According to Margaret Archer (2007, 93), fragmented reflexivity describes a fragmented and inconsistent internal dialogue that makes it difficult for an individual to make decisions and act in a coherent manner. It often arises in unstable or conflict, ridden social contexts and leads to uncertainty, passivity, or impulsive actions. Individuals with fragmented reflexivity struggle to establish a stable identity or plan for the future, which hinders effective action and personal development. Part of this is a doubt that has come to dominate. Dostoevsky wrote that thinking can be a disease if taken to extremes. The doubt that is part of fragmented reflexivity can manifest itself as Jacoby captures so well in this passage:
“When Laing writes that ‘human beings are constantly thinking about others and about what others are thinking about them, and what others think they are thinking about the others, and so on,’ 211 he neglects to add the crucial qualification: not all human beings, but human beings who have been mesmerized and mutilated. ‘Human beings’ seek double and triple confirmation when the first fails; and the first fails when the ego that advances it fails. The ego, frightened by its own fragility, seeks en n endless confirmations it can neither give nor receive. The logic of human relations approaches the logic of paranoia: danger lurks in every nook and cranny. Confirmation hardly allays these fears; one needs meta, confirmation and meta, metaconfirmation. “What I think you think of me reverberates back to what I think of myself, and what I think of myself in turn affects the way I act toward you; this influences in turn how you feel about yourself and the way you act toward me, and so on.And so on”: the task is endless, with no escape or exit. In the prison of mirrors that is society, the prisoners serving life sentences stare at the mirrors for signs of life. Multiple reflections are the opium for the multiple wounds the ego has suffered. This is not to argue that in a future, humane society, confirmations and meta, confirmations would not exist; they undoubtedly would. But they become an exclusive pastime in a society where the ego is profoundly injured. Total confirmation is an imperative where total insecurity is a reality.” (Jacoby, 1996)