“Too often it is simply taken for granted that an increase in wisdom will lead to a decrease in stupidity.”
– explains Prof. Dr. René ten Bos, professor of philosophy and organizational theory at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
His recent paper ‘The vitality of stupidity’ (published in Social Epistemology 21 (2):139-150) argues that “… the focus within organization studies on wisdom is one-sided in the sense that it ignores stupidity, wisdom’s little stepbrother.” Going on to note that : “Stupidity and wisdom stand in a deeply paradoxical relationship, which has been studied by philosophers at least since the Stoics.” And informing that the overall aim of the paper “… is to show that organizations too are familiar with these philosophical paradoxes.”
Note: The biographical notes for the professor’s paper state, some might say cryptically – “He is the author of 13 or so books and more than 100 articles which merely suggest a wisdom where there is not.”
Also see: from the same author:
‘Are organizations bicycles?’, in: Culture & Organization, 11, 2, pp. 29-44