In "Wisdom, Information and Wonder," Mary Midgley tackles the question at the root of our civilization: What is knowledge for? The author rejects the fragmentary and specialized way in which information is conveyed in today's high technology world and argues cogently for the primary importance of understanding over the acquisition of information. "Thinking" itself, she argues, needs to strengthen the connection between theory and practice.
Midgley challenges us to re-examine the protective barriers built to isolate "science" from other forms of inquiry, and each particular science from its neighbors. More urgently still, philosophy itself needs to stop being treated as an obscure specialty, and take up its role as the key to understanding. This will be an important book for anyone concerned with the plight of education and institutionalized knowledge, and the fate of learning in the future.
