What is wisdom?
Introduction: Wisdom is generally thought of as a certain set of knowledge which has both a practical and a theoretical aspect. This knowledge inevitably results in the person who has it living a good life. This is because a wise person is both someone who knows the correct things, knows how to rationally implement them and succeeds at doing so and thereby living a good life.
Thesis: I argue that wisdom is a mixture of practical knowledge and abstract knowledge where a person is capable of and succeeds at applying these ideas in a rational way that results in a good life.
Argument: In order to be truly wise it seems clear that a person must know the universe and their place in it. As such extensive knowledge is necessary. However, they must also have extensive knowledge of their own life and therefore must be expert in the proper way of applying this knowledge and therefore know how best to live well. Such a person 's knowledge will also make it clear to them the inherent value of living well, and would therefore have to desire it as well as know how to attain it (Hursthouse 12). Someone who is not living well and therefore virtuously surely cannot then be wise.
As long as we do not assume that wisdom must be attainable by all people, there is not a problem. However, it should further be noted that the condition is that a wise person must have extensive theoretical knowledge. This says nothing about false beliefs. An ancient person, if truly wise, will have investigated the world to the extent that it must surely be true that they have a large amount of true beliefs. The fact that they also have along side those true beliefs some false ones due to the primitive time they live does not negate the extensive theoretical knowledge they still
...Greeks, for their part, considered wisdom a virtue, but their conception of wisdom always contained a conventional, conservative element. ..."Wisdom" is not the term one would use to describe a scientific genius, a brilliant artist, an innovator in any field. But these, for Rand, are the highest exemplars of rationality.
Most people know what wisdom is. On the other hand though, why is it valued so highly in western civilization? Wisdom is a building block of western civilization. Wisdom was valued even in ancient Greece. Socrates was known as the wise scholar. Wisdom has always been a trait that people have admired. Wisdom is admired because wisdom leads to make right choices in life. A wise person would know when to push their luck or when to back down. The complete understanding of a situation is a very desirable trait for all people.
...n atheist might find the existence of a Creator incompatible with his life-long belief, and feel the clash between the truth and his philosophy in life unbearable. A devote priest would find the correctness of the evolution theory equally disrupting in his lifestyle and unacceptable. Another problem, though not extensively discussed in this report, is as relevant. Plato believed that less gifted people should not waste the society's and their own resources on learning and advancing to the 'Good'. Only the wisest would learn to become philosopher kings and receive education of the highest quality. This preposition rebels against everything discussed above and yields those less of a genius would inevitably lead less enjoyable lives. The happiest lifestyle would only be reserved to intelligent individuals. This introduces enormous contradiction and simply cannot stand.
Soccio, Douglas J. "Philosophy and the Search for Wisdom." Archetypes of Wisdom. 7th ed. Bellmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1995. 11+. Print
Wisdom is a hard concept to grasp especially, in today’s society because of the complex issues we are faced with now. Things ranging from war to something like same sex marriages. The way society has shaped up to be makes it harder to determine what’s exactly right or wrong. An example of that the confusion we are being faced with is whether or not we should go to war to me or you regular citizens war might not be the best thing for us because all we see is the losses we will be handed. To the government our losses are not important what is important to them power. They want to keep other nations scared of the United States. So we are left with the question of would it be wise to engage in a war? The answer would vary depending on the person you are asking the question to. Through our discussion in class of knowledge, skills and wisdom we came to the conclusion of “knowledge is knowing what”, “skills is knowing how” and “wisdom is knowing what and how plus knowing when.” I agree fully with that explanation. The key to wisdom is having skills and knowledge but knowing how to use them. Socrates I think believes that but he feels that wisdom also includes the journey. Meaning a key to wisdom is seeking answers and not being satisfied with something that is said to be right but, does not make any sense to you. I also find that to be true.
The act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
By the following knowledge, we can find happiness and help us do the right things. The power of knowledge hasn't lost a bit of significance even today and still valued by the majority of people. The society we live in today, knowledge is accepted by each and every one of us. The strong beliefs bring out more people seeking higher education and aspire to get a degree in such a field they desire. In the knowledge-based society we live in today, it has widely come to be accepted. A knowledgeable person gets the job quickly in the field. Considering the fact that knowledge and information are the important part of our lives, a knowledge is to fully understand it can give you enough value throughout your
Our knowledge is a key to our success and happiness in our life to give us personal satisfaction. Knowledge is power but not always. Sometimes our self-awareness and growth as an individual gives us negative thoughts that make us want to go back to undo it. Everyone wants to unlearn a part in our life that brought us pain and problems. Good or bad experiences brought by true wisdom can be used for our self-acceptance, self-fulfillment and these experiences would make us stronger as we walk to the road of our so called “life”, but Douglas’s and my experience about knowledge confirmed his belief that “Knowledge is a curse”. Both of us felt frustrated and sad from learning knowledge.
...s intuition and understanding of his surroundings could handle a CEO position with the added training of a college education. A commonplace is that the person last in his class in medical school is generally called a doctor. It is the experiences one goes through in college that prepares the students for the real world. Common sense and perseverance are more important than book sense. According on one philosopher, “it is a thousand times better to have common sense without an education than to have education without common sense.”
The Wise and Foolish (Solomon) where Solomon was the wisest of all people, and yet he died a fool because he ignored his own advice (Proverbs). It is not enough to know the truth; you have to do it. Wisdom begins with knowing that “God knows best.
So to say, knowledge can either make or break a person. It can act as a benefit, for power, or loss, for ignorance. “Do not take for granted what you know. Ask yourself how you know what you know; ask yourself whom it benefits, whom it hurts and why.” (Blackboard: Knowledge is Power)
The forms of intelligence advanced by Gardner indicate a person’s ability and capability and the form in which they prefer to learn and develop strengths. Developing a person’s strengths ensures that they positively respond to the learning experience and their growth and development is also influenced. The theory suggests that people have a set of intelligences and that it is not the single drive for a person’s style and capability. The notion that a person’s intelligence can be measured and scaled is said to be ridiculous, (Chapman, 2016) and that a person possesses a mix of abilities, but is only good at a few and that people coexist and work well together when they are collectively good at different things, (Silver, Strong & Perini,
What does it mean to be wise? Webster's Dictionary defines the word "wise" as being "marked by deep understanding, keen discerment". Through the telling of the ancient Mariner's tale, the Wedding-Guest became sadder and wiser. He became sad in that he identified himself with the shallow and self-absorbed mariner. However, the mariner changed his ways. The Wedding-Guest became wise through realizing that he himself needed to alter his ways.
In response to Gerald Graff’s article about “Hidden Intellectualism,” he discusses street smarts and that often people are educated through what they learn in their environment. In many ways people are intelligent but this knowledge rarely goes unacknowledged in formal schooling. In this way, people are intellectual but are more able to apply what they know to what they have picked up about life or topics through various scenarios in their lives rather than through
To provide solutions to philosophical problems such as, how world process was created, man must be in possession of rational, intuition, and intuitive knowledge. Rational knowledge is human reasoning and requires verification. The ability of man to reason while giving logical step by step demonstration and arguments is referred to as human knowledge and it has a rational source. According to Carriero and Broughton (2011), genuine rational knowledge is provided by clear and separate knowledge of wholesome intellect with sense deliverances interaction. Sen (1996) considers rational knowledge as the knowledge of change in states of specific entities, in the sense that human experience is a confirmation of change. What are its classes, provisions and philosophical problem associated with rational knowledge? The paper seeks to examine rational knowledge by addressing the above three issues.