Dr. Paul Baltes then discussed wisdom, which he referred to as a meta-heuristic that activates bodies of knowledge together to focus on mind and character at the same time. He noted that developmental psychology has never ignored positive psychology, as it has always concerned growth. Wisdom may be a key to resilience in the upcoming century of the incomplete mind. The theoretical definition of wisdom is expertise in the domain of the fundamental pragmatics of life, and criteria for it include factual and strategic knowledge, as well as understanding of relativism, context, and uncertainties. Using think-aloud profiles and then coding responses, a positive correlation between wisdom and age was found only for adolescents.
Older adults do however appear better at understanding relativism and contextualism.
The biggest shortcut to a good life may be to activate bodies of knowledge such as wisdom. However, Dr. Baltes believes that modesty and tolerance are critical notions for the developing field of positive psychology. In his discussion, Dr. George Vaillant referred to a comment Dr. Baltes had made earlier stating that the wise person is one whom people from other villages would trust. He also discussed the similarity between his notion of mature defenses and the wellsprings from the Cayman list. Dr. Corey Keyes then discussed languishing and flourishing.