Wisdom of being: ratiomorphism, autonoeticity

Abstract

The article argues that there is a universal, earlier, neurobiologically determined core representing the wisdom of existence as an attribute of life, its subjectivity, autonomy, and subjectivity. For pre-human beings, the basis of their wisdom is various forms of ratiomorphism that determine the scanning of the environment and adaptation to its changes. Later, the emergence of autonomy and developed language changes the forms of wisdom. Wisdom appears as a state of mind and the associated metacognition, reflective thinking, and autonomy of cognition. In a general sense, the basis of the wisdom of living organisms is determined by the synchronization of ratiomorphic mechanisms directed toward variable adaptive goals. This synchronization determines the core of wisdom defined by Walter Cannon as the wisdom of the body. This core was shaped in the course of the evolution of a monohierarchical memory system, from primitive procedural memory, through semantic memory, to autonoetic memory. Is there a clear boundary separating human wisdom from various forms of wisdom in living beings? If we consider procedural memory to be the basis, then such a boundary cannot be drawn. Procedural memory determines the results of unconscious intuitive processing and the associated structures of implicit experience. Procedural memory, equivalent to the mechanisms of intuition, constitutes the primary core of wisdom. Later, when autobiographical (episodic) memory emerges and takes shape, wisdom becomes its inherent internal component as an experience of one's own existence, temporal orientation, and journey through time. Autonoeticity emerges as an experience of the rationality of one's own existence. In a structural sense, the core of wisdom integrates globally oriented intuitive experience with the results of metacognition and experienced autonoeticity. In a functional sense, the basis of wisdom is constituted by mechanisms of cognitive equivalence change through complementary forms of abstract and metaphorical thinking.