The wisdom of sages: nuclear physics education, knowledge-inquiry, and wisdom-inquiry

TL;DR

This paper explores the distinction between knowledge-inquiry and wisdom-inquiry in nuclear physics education, highlighting how textbooks often emphasize technical knowledge while subtly suppressing the deeper pursuit of wisdom.

Contribution

It analyzes the use of literary quotations in textbooks to reveal underlying educational philosophies, contrasting knowledge focus with the promotion of wisdom.

Findings

Textbooks contain quotations suggesting wisdom but emphasize technical content.

There is a tension between promoting knowledge and suppressing wisdom in physics education.

The study highlights the need to balance knowledge-inquiry with wisdom-inquiry in curricula.

Abstract

In this paper I address the difference between knowledge-inquiry and wisdom-inquiry (concepts introduced by N. Maxwell) in nuclear physics education, specifically in senior-level textbooks for first-degree physics students. Following on from an earlier study of 57 such textbooks, I focus here on a remarkable use of literary quotations in one of them. The nuclear physics textbook Particles and Nuclei: an Introduction to the Physical Concepts, by B. Povh et al opens with a (German) quotation from Max und Moritz which has been rendered, in the celebrated translation by C. T. Brooks, as "Not alone to solve the double/ Rule of Three shall man take trouble;/ But must hear with pleasure Sages/ Teach the wisdom of the ages." What the student gets however is technical material followed abruptly at the very end by the advice (from The Book of Jeremiah) "And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates". From a study of these and other quotations and other features of this book I infer a strong desire to express something important about wisdom, which is however even more powerfully suppressed by the ideology of knowledge-inquiry. At the end of this paper I discuss briefly wisdom of the ages and wisdom for our age.