Includes bibliographical references and index

Systems thinking as the core of social wisdom -- How to educate for wisdom: developing mental models of causality -- Developing mental models of causality by reading literature -- Principles of a wisdom-cultivating literary pedagogy -- Faulty causal analysis and its harmful consequences -- Causal analysis I: proximal, distal, and root causes of problems -- Causal analysis II: system openness and dynamism -- Causal analysis III: causal loops -- Faulty prospection and its harmful consequences -- Developing adequate prospection -- Social cognition I: situational causes of behavior and life outcomes -- Social cognition II: environmental causes of character -- Social cognition III: human nature as a root cause of character -- Metacognition: developing an accurate mental model of oneself

"This book responds to the pressing and increasingly recognized need to cultivate social wisdom for addressing major problems confronting humanity. Connecting literary studies with some of the biggest questions confronted by researchers and students today, the book provides a practical approach to thinking through, and potentially solving, global problems such as poverty, inequality, crime, war, racism, classism, environmental decline, and climate change"--