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How can students and scholars in professional studies turn experience and ideas into practical knowledge and wisdom (phronesis)? How can critical and theoretical reflection on professional practice nurture practitioners' human development or Bildung, and help them develop the capacity to respond wisely in complex situations? How might world philosophies and intercultural dialogue inspire lived life and professional practice? With leading scholars as guests, hosts professors Michael Noah Weiss and Guro Hansen Helskog explore these questions at the intersection of philosophy, epistemology, education, and professional studies.
TRANSCRIPT SUMMARY
(This transcript summary was AI-generated and then edited by the podcast hosts for quality assurance)
#36 Nancy Sherman special | Finding Calm in a Storm - together with Harald Høiback, Ingrid Christine Reite Christensen, Linda Hafskjold & Camilla Angeltun
- a podcast dialogue with Michael Noah Weiss and Guro Hansen Helskog
INTRODUCTION: WHEN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY MEETS PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Can ancient philosophy help us navigate the complexities of modern professional life? This question lies at the heart of this special live edition of the ResponsAbility Podcast, recorded at the University of South-Eastern Norway. Following a keynote lecture by philosopher Nancy Sherman, the conversation develops into a philosophical inquiry with moderators Michael Noah Weiss and Guro Hansen Helskog before culminating in an interdisciplinary panel featuring professionals from the military, policing, healthcare, and teacher education.
Rather than treating Stoicism and Aristotelian ethics as historical curiosities, the event asks what these traditions can contribute to contemporary professional judgment, resilience, responsibility, and human flourishing. Throughout the dialogue, philosophy emerges not as abstract speculation but as a practical companion for navigating uncertainty, moral complexity, and the challenges of professional life.
WHY STOICISM HAS RETURNED
Nancy Sherman opens her keynote by reflecting on the remarkable revival of Stoicism in contemporary culture. Once an ancient philosophical school, Stoicism has become popular among business leaders, military officers, athletes, and technology entrepreneurs seeking guidance in times of uncertainty. Yet Sherman argues that much of this modern enthusiasm captures only part of the Stoic tradition.
Returning to its historical roots, she introduces the central Stoic thinkers—Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius—and explains how their writings were never intended as simple techniques for emotional suppression. Instead, Stoicism was conceived as a lifelong practice aimed at cultivating inner freedom, sound judgment, and ethical character.
Drawing on historical examples, including the experience of Admiral James Stockdale during the Vietnam War, Sherman illustrates how Stoic philosophy has often served people facing extreme adversity. Yet resilience, she argues, is not merely about enduring hardship. It is equally about learning how to respond wisely to circumstances beyond one's control while remaining fully responsible for one's own actions.
ARISTOTLE AND THE SOCIAL NATURE OF HUMAN FLOURISHING
Although Stoicism provides one important framework, Sherman repeatedly returns to Aristotle as an equally essential conversation partner.
Where Stoicism emphasizes inner freedom and emotional discipline, Aristotle reminds us that human beings are fundamentally social creatures. Flourishing is not achieved in isolation but through relationships, communities, friendship, and participation in civic life.
Professional practice therefore cannot be reduced to technical competence alone. Good professionals develop practical wisdom—phronesis—which enables them to perceive what a particular situation requires. Such wisdom cannot simply be transferred through lectures or manuals. It develops gradually through experience, reflection, habituation, and participation in communities of practice.
This emphasis on practical wisdom becomes a recurring thread throughout the remainder of the event.
BEYOND TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
During the dialogue following the keynote, Michael Noah Weiss invites Sherman to reflect on one of the central questions in professional studies: what actually constitutes professional competence?
Professional education often appears to focus on technical knowledge and procedural skills. Yet experienced practitioners know that successful professional action depends equally upon virtues such as courage, patience, integrity, compassion, restraint, humility, and sound judgment.
Sherman agrees that these qualities cannot simply be taught as information. Like Aristotle's virtues, they must be cultivated through repeated practice. Character develops by acting well repeatedly until good judgment becomes part of one's way of being.
The conversation therefore challenges a common assumption in higher education—that professional knowledge is primarily something one acquires cognitively before applying it in practice. Instead, professional formation involves the gradual development of the person as much as the acquisition of knowledge.
ACCEPTING LIMITS WHILE EXERCISING AGENCY
Another major theme concerns one of Stoicism's most famous ideas: distinguishing between what lies within our control and what does not.
Many professionals work within institutions whose structures they cannot fully change—schools, hospitals, military organizations, police services, or universities. Nevertheless, they continue to feel responsible for improving these systems.
Sherman suggests that Stoicism does not advocate passivity. Rather, it encourages careful discernment. Professionals must invest their energy where they genuinely possess agency while accepting those circumstances that remain beyond their control.
This distinction is neither resignation nor indifference. Instead, it frees individuals from exhausting themselves over the impossible while strengthening their commitment to those actions that truly matter.
PROFESSIONAL NARRATIVES AS PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY
The second half of the event shifts from philosophical concepts to lived professional experience. Each panelist presents a concrete narrative of tension or discrepancy arising within professional practice. Nancy Sherman responds not by offering solutions but by asking what is philosophically at stake in each story.
The result is a series of philosophical case studies demonstrating how ancient thought continues to illuminate contemporary professional dilemmas.
POLICING: TRUST, RESTRAINT, AND PRACTICAL JUDGMENT
Ingrid Christine Reite Christensen recounts an experience that began almost accidentally while sitting in the cafeteria at the Norwegian Police University College. Overhearing instructors responsible for teaching the use of force, she expected practical discussions about techniques. Instead, she encountered a remarkably sophisticated conversation about judgment, proportionality, communication, and restraint.
This observation leads her to a deeper question: perhaps these highly practical instructors are already engaged in philosophy without naming it as such.
Their "conflict pyramid" presents force not as the primary instrument of policing but as the final option within a broader framework of dialogue, communication, trust, and de-escalation. The challenge lies not merely in teaching procedures but in cultivating the capacity to judge when restraint is appropriate and how trust can be established before force becomes necessary.
Sherman connects this directly to Aristotelian practical wisdom. Judgment cannot be replaced by rules. Instead, professionals learn to perceive the unique features of each situation through experience and habituation.
She also draws parallels with military contexts in which restraint itself becomes a professional virtue. Sometimes courage consists not in acting forcefully but precisely in holding back.
MILITARY LEADERSHIP: CONSCIENCE, FAILURE, AND EMOTIONAL COMMITMENT
Harald Høiback introduces two interconnected dilemmas drawn from military philosophy and personal experience.
The first concerns Carl von Clausewitz, whose writings combine military realism with remarkable emphasis on discipline and restraint. Yet Clausewitz also faced a profound moral dilemma when he chose to disobey his king during the Napoleonic Wars, raising enduring questions about conscience, loyalty, and obedience.
The second narrative emerges from Harald's own deployment to Afghanistan. As military operations continued despite widespread recognition that strategic objectives had largely failed, professionals faced conflicting demands. Rational analysis suggested withdrawal, while emotional commitment, loyalty, and empathy made disengagement extraordinarily difficult.
Sherman's response refuses simplistic oppositions between reason and emotion. For both Aristotle and the Stoics, emotions are neither enemies nor infallible guides. Instead, mature judgment involves educating emotions so that they become aligned with reason rather than opposed to it.
Failure itself also becomes philosophically significant. Ancient philosophy reminds us that acknowledging failure may require as much courage as pursuing success.
HEALTHCARE: RESPONSIBILITY WITHIN COMPLEX SYSTEMS
Linda Hafskjold's contribution shifts attention toward healthcare, where professionals regularly encounter tensions between organizational structures, technological demands, and the needs of individual patients.
The discussion highlights how technical expertise alone cannot guarantee ethical care. Healthcare professionals continually navigate competing responsibilities while seeking to preserve dignity, compassion, and attentiveness within increasingly complex systems.
Sherman emphasizes that ancient philosophy offers no formula for resolving such tensions. Instead, it encourages the cultivation of practical judgment capable of discerning what particular circumstances require.
TEACHER EDUCATION: LIVING WITHOUT CERTAINTY
Camilla Angeltun concludes the panel by turning explicitly toward education itself.
Teacher education often seeks certainty through learning outcomes, competencies, and measurable standards. Yet genuine educational encounters frequently resist predetermined solutions. Teachers must exercise judgment in situations characterized by ambiguity, unpredictability, and relational complexity.
Here Aristotle's notion of phronesis again becomes central. Good teaching depends less upon rigid application of rules than upon the cultivated ability to perceive what this learner, in this context, at this moment, requires.
Education therefore becomes an ongoing practice of practical wisdom rather than merely the transmission of information.
PHILOSOPHY AS A COMPANION FOR PROFESSIONAL LIFE
One striking feature of the entire event is that philosophy never appears as external commentary imposed upon professional practice. Instead, philosophy gradually reveals the conceptual depth already present within everyday professional experience.
Police instructors discussing de-escalation, military officers wrestling with conscience, healthcare professionals balancing competing responsibilities, and educators navigating uncertainty all confront fundamentally philosophical questions, whether or not they use philosophical language.
The event demonstrates that ancient philosophy remains relevant precisely because it addresses enduring human concerns: how to exercise judgment, cultivate character, respond wisely to uncertainty, and remain ethically grounded amid complexity.
CONCLUSION: CULTIVATING RESPONSE-ABILITY
Throughout this special episode, philosophy emerges not as a source of ready-made answers but as a practice of attentive questioning.
Nancy Sherman repeatedly returns to the insight that resilience is not emotional invulnerability, practical wisdom is not technical expertise, and professional excellence is not achieved through rules alone. Rather, these qualities develop through lifelong cultivation of character, reflection, dialogue, and experience.
Ultimately, the event embodies the very spirit of the ResponsAbility Podcast. Ancient philosophy becomes a living conversation with contemporary professional life, inviting listeners to reconsider not only what they know, but who they are becoming through their practice. In this sense, Stoicism and Aristotelian ethics are less about solving professional dilemmas than about forming professionals capable of responding wisely, courageously, and humanely to whatever situations they encounter.