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Wisdom

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The caption reads "He over all the stars does reign, that unto wisdom can attain". In other words, "Whoever becomes wise will rule over everything."

Wisdom is using knowledge, experience, and insight to think and act with good judgment. Wisdom is defined differently by many cultures and gained through natural means (e.g., life experiences and reason) or supernatural means (e.g., divine revelation and religious teachings).

Someone who has wisdom is called wise. Most cultures historically recognized wise individuals, often called sages, who were sought for guidance because they understood things ordinary people did not. In Western culture, the owl of Athena or Minerva is a symbol of wisdom.

Wisdom is broadly categorized into theoretical wisdom, practical wisdom, and moral wisdom.

Philosophical perspectives

Western philosophy

Ancient Greek philosophy

  • Socrates: wisdom involves recognizing one’s own ignorance and questioning and refining one's beliefs rather than assuming certainty.[1]
  • Plato: wisdom is the love of knowledge gained through education, contemplation, and understanding justice and the forms.[2]
  • Aristotle: wisdom is understanding why things are a certain way (causality).

Medieval and Renaissance thought

  • Augustine of Hippo: wisdom comes from knowing and loving God beyond worldly knowledge.[3]
  • Thomas Aquinas: wisdom guides reason toward ultimate truth and divine understanding found in God.[4] Natural wisdom comes through reason and supernatural wisdom comes through divine revelation.[5]
  • Erasmus and Montaigne: emphasized self-reflection, skepticism, and challenging dogmatic reliance on authority.[6]

Modern and contemporary philosophy

  • Immanuel Kant: wisdom is applying practical reason to act according to universal moral principles.[7]
  • Friedrich Nietzsche: wisdom is self-created through personal growth, struggle, and self-overcoming.[8]
  • Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus: wisdom is accepting life's absurdity and choosing to live meaningfully despite its challenges.[9]
  • John Dewey: wisdom is acquired through ongoing inquiry, experimentation, adaption, and reflection.[10]
  • Martha Nussbaum: wisdom integrates emotional intelligence and empathy into moral reasoning.[11]
  • Michel Foucault: wisdom is shaped by power structures to serve dominant ideologies.[12]
  • Philip Kitcher: wisdom is a collective process involving diverse perspectives.[13]

Eastern philosophy

  • Buddha:
  • Hindu philosophy: wisdom is the self-realization that the self is one with the infinite consciousness of Brahman (ultimate divine essence) and distinguishing the real and unreal to break the cycle of rebirth.[21][22]
  • Gita: paths to wisdom include Jnana yoga (intellectual discernment and self-inquiry), Bhakti yoga (devotion to a personal deity), and Karma yoga (selfless action).[23]
  • Taoist philosophy: wisdom is effortless action and harmony with the natural flow of the universe (Tao) by embracing harmony with nature, balancing opposites (Ying and Yang), spontaneity, and accepting change.[24][25][26]

Psychological perspectives

The field of psychology has identified the following traits of wisdom:

  • Recognize the limits of your knowledge.[27]
  • Acknowledge uncertainty and change.[27]
  • Pay attention to context and the bigger picture.[27]
  • Integrate different perspectives of a situation.[27]
  • Handle the contradictions of a situation.
  • Assess the consequences of an action for yourself and others.
  • Balance intrapersonal (self), interpersonal (others), and institutional (society) interests.[28]
  • Practice emotional regulation.

Religious perspectives

  • Zoroastrianism: wisdom is found in the deity Ahura Mazda who embodies goodness and truth.[29]
  • Hellenistic religion and Gnosticism: wisdom is a divine or mystical force that reveals hidden truths and guides the soul to transcend material existence towards the one source of reality.[30][31]
  • Abrahamic religions: truth is found in the deity God who embodies goodness and truth.[source?] This understanding is revealed through his chosen prophets, holy texts, and personal divine revelation.
  • Al-Kindi: we must not be ashamed to admire the truth or to acquire it, from wherever it comes.

Educational perspectives

  • Nicholas Maxwell: wisdom is the capacity to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others.[32] New knowledge without wisdom can cause both harm and good.

References

  1. ↑ Fine, Gail (2008). "Does Socrates Claim to Know that He Knows Nothing?". Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy. 35: 49–88. doi:10.1093/oso/9780199557790.003.0003. ISBN 978-0-19-955779-0.
  2. ↑ Trowbridge, R. H. (May 2011). "Waiting for Sophia: 30 years of Conceptualizing Wisdom in Empirical Psychology". Research in Human Development. 8 (2): 111–117. doi:10.1080/15427609.2011.568872. S2CID 145371442.
  3. ↑ Augustine, Saint (2003) [426]. The City of God. London: Penguin Classics.
  4. ↑ Aquinas, Thomas (1981) [1265–1274]. Summa Theologica. Christian Classics.
  5. ↑ Kretzmann, Norman (1993). The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas. Cambridge University Press.
  6. ↑ Erasmus, Desiderius (1993) [1511]. The Praise of Folly. Penguin Classics.
  7. ↑ Kant, Immanuel (1996) [1788]. Critique of Practical Reason. Cambridge University Press.
  8. ↑ Nietzsche, Friedrich (2006) [1883]. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Cambridge University Press.
  9. ↑ Camus, Albert (1991) [1942]. The Myth of Sisyphus. Vintage International.
  10. ↑ Dewey, John (2018) [1916]. Democracy and Education. Free Press.
  11. ↑ Nussbaum, Martha (2001) [1986]. The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.
  12. ↑ Foucault, Michel (2002) [1969]. The Archaeology of Knowledge. Routledge.
  13. ↑ Kitcher, Philip (2011). The Ethical Project. Harvard University Press.
  14. ↑ Confucius (2003) [5th century BCE]. The Analects. Penguin Classics.
  15. ↑ Karunamuni, N.; Weerasekera, R. (2019). "Theoretical Foundations to Guide Mindfulness Meditation: A Path to Wisdom". Current Psychology. 38 (3): 627–646. doi:10.1007/s12144-017-9631-7. S2CID 149024504.
  16. ↑ Bodhi, Bhikkhu. "The Noble Eightfold Path". Access to Insight. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  17. ↑ Dhammapada v. 256
  18. ↑ Dhammapada v. 257
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Dhammapada v. 258
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Dhammapada v. 268–269
  21. ↑ Olivelle, Patrick (1998) [1998]. The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation. Oxford University Press.
  22. ↑ Comans, Michael (2000) [2000]. The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta. Motilal Banarsidass.
  23. ↑ Sargeant, Winthrop (2009) [1984]. The Bhagavad Gita: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition. State University of New York Press.
  24. ↑ Zhuangzi (2003) [4th century BCE]. Zhuangzi: Basic Writings. Columbia University Press.
  25. ↑ Mair, Victor H. (1998). Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Zhuangzi. University of Hawaii Press.
  26. ↑ Laozi (2006) [4th century BCE]. Tao Te Ching. Hackett Publishing.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 Vuong, Quan-Hoang (2022). The Kingfisher Story Collection. Amazon Digital Services. ISBN 979-8-3539-4659-5.[page needed]
  28. ↑
  29. ↑ Boyce, Mary (1983). "Ahura Mazdā". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 684–687. ISBN 978-0-7100-9099-7.
  30. ↑ Burkert, Walter (1989). Ancient Mystery Cults. Harvard University Press.
  31. ↑ Plotinus (1991) [3rd century CE]. The Enneads. Penguin Classics.
  32. ↑

    Wisdom Media

    "Friends of Wisdom". University College London. 21 February 2019. an association of people sympathetic to the idea that academic inquiry should help humanity acquire more wisdom by rational means

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