Random notes on wisdom
Someone recently asked me how I would define wisdom. I had no idea what to say. So, I decided to research the concept so I could write an article attempting to answer the question. If you’re interested in exploring what wisdom is and how to acquire more of it, check out these notes from around the web. And, please let me know what I might be missing or misunderstanding.
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My notes
Wisdom = the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.
Wise = having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment.
Wisdom =
a: ability to discern inner qualities and relationships : INSIGHT
b: good sense : JUDGMENT
c: generally accepted belief
d: accumulated philosophical or scientific learning : KNOWLEDGE
Wise =
a: characterized by wisdom : marked by deep understanding, keen discernment, and a capacity for sound judgment
b: exercising or showing sound judgment : PRUDENT
What is wisdom? (Neel Burton 2018)
Dr. Neel Burton is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and writer who lives and teaches in Oxford, England.
The word "wisdom" is mentioned 222 times in the Old Testament, which includes the seven "wisdom books":
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
the Song of Solomon,
the Book of Wisdom, and
Sirach.
The word "philosophy" literally means "the love of wisdom."
The name of our species, Homo sapiens, means "wise man" in Latin. (Source)
Wisdom is the overarching aim of ancient philosophy
In Plato's Lysis ⇒ Socrates tells Lysis that, without wisdom, he would be of no value to anyone:
"And therefore, my boy, if you are wise, all men will be your friends and kindred, for you will be useful and good; but if you are not wise, neither father, nor mother, nor kindred, nor anyone else, will be your friends."
In Greek mythology ⇒ Athena is the goddess of wisdom ⇒ Her symbol / the symbol of wisdom = the owl.
In Norse mythology ⇒ The god Odin gave up one of his eyes in exchange for a drink from the well of knowledge and wisdom ⇒ he traded one mode of perception for the other ⇒ no sacrifice is too great for wisdom?
What is wisdom ⇒ there are several different ways to look at this:
Wisdom as knowledge?
One hypothesis is that wisdom is knowledge, or a great deal of knowledge.
If wisdom is knowledge ⇒ It has to be knowledge that is not scientific or technical knowledge (otherwise students today would be wiser than the wisest of ancient philosophers)
Wisdom as humility?
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." —The Bible
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” —Socrates
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one"s own ignorance.” —Confucius
“A fool who recognizes his own ignorance is thereby in fact a wise man.” —Buddha
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” —Shakespeare
Wisdom as perspective (i.e. “point of view”)?
In the Metaphysics, Aristotle says that wisdom is the understanding of causes ⇒ In other words, wisdom is the understanding of the right relations between things, which calls for more distant and removed perspectives, and maybe also the ability or willingness to shift between perspectives.
Book I or “Alpha” outlines "first philosophy", which is a knowledge of the first principles or causes of things ⇒ The wise are able to teach because they know the why of things, unlike those who only know that things are a certain way based on their memory and sensations. (Source)
Wisdom is not so much a kind of knowledge as a way of seeing, or ways of seeing.
The opposite of "wisdom" is “folly” ⇒ which involves the loss of perspective (note to self: does he mean the lack of good sense or judgement?)
Robert Nozick ⇒ wisdom involves an understanding of the goals and values of life and the means of achieving them.
If you have proper perspective, you cannot fail to understand the goals and values of life or indeed fail to act on that understanding.
Socrates claimed ⇒ nobody does wrong knowingly: People only do wrong because, from their limited perspective, it seems like the right or best thing for them to do.
Jesus said ⇒ "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
How do you cultivate perspective?
Be knowledgeable
Be intelligent
Be reflective
Be open-minded, and
Be disinterested.
Be courageous
“Courage is the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees the others.” —Aristotle
Socrates and the Search For Wisdom (Farnam Street 2014)
The arrogance of limited knowledge results in foolishness.
Socrates ⇒ “I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.” (This is an excerpt from Plato’s Apology.)
Socrates embraced human uncertainty and doubt as a way of life ⇒ He recognized that to be human is typically to be ignorant.
But unlike other animals, the human creature can become conscious of his or her ignorance. (Source)
What Does It Mean to Be Wise? (Marianna Pogosyan 2018)
Dr. Marianna Pogosyan is a lecturer in Cultural Psychology and a consultant specializing in the psychology of cross-cultural transitions.
Many people think wisdom = knowing a lot
But ⇒ 1) there is more to wisdom than knowledge and 2) there is more than one way of being wise.
Winston Churchill was known for his practical wisdom
Mother Teresa had benevolent wisdom.
Socrates was famed for being philosophically wise.
Where do our beliefs on wisdom originate and what insights does psychology say about what it means to be wise?
For centuries, civilizations have passed down their ideas of wisdom through stories of a moral and virtuous life ⇒ These stories came from all over the world:
the Sumerians,
ancient Egypt,
the ancient Hindu scriptures of Vedas
the Taoist and Confucian writings from China, and
the philosophers from ancient Greece.
According to these different cultures, wisdom stands on many pillars:
Confucianism ⇒ Benevolence and listening to others
Taoism ⇒ Self-reflection
Lao-Tzu ⇒ Letting life unfold naturally
Socrates ⇒ Questioning and intellectual humility (i.e., recognizing the constraints of one’s thought)
In psychological research, wisdom is viewed as a multifaceted concept with the following components:
cognitive (knowledge and experience),
reflective (the ability to examine issues and oneself), and
prosocial (benevolence and compassion).
Wise thinking that leads to better decision-making requires “perspective” ⇒ I.e. viewing situations from a third-person (i.e. “fly-on-the-wall”) perspective rather than a first-person (i.e. “ego-centric”) perspective.
Examining events from a first-person perspective can make us close-minded / defensive ⇒ Examining events from third-person perspective helps provide us with broader context.
(We are more likely to demonstrate greater wisdom when reflecting on others’ lives rather than our own.)
How is wisdom acquired?
If you consider wisdom to be a skill, then typically there are two paths: 1) relevant experiences; and 2) education.
What characteristics are most often associated with wisdom?
The key cognitive features of wisdom are:
1) open-mindedness,
2) epistemic humility (you recognize the limits of your knowledge).
3) the consideration of different perspectives
In what ways does culture influence wisdom?
1) Culture affects what is considered virtuous
2) Culture affects what education is prioritized
E.g. In the USA, we emphasize achievement while in Japan, they emphasize perspective taking.
3) Culture affects experience
E.g. Consider the ways people handle adversity and social conflicts: In Japan and Hong Kong, people don't really discuss conflicts directly at work. Instead, there is often a supervisor or a third party in charge of conflict resolution, which is not necessarily the case in the USA.
Why is wisdom considered a universally cherished human virtue?
It has to do with survival ⇒ Some level of wisdom is essential for our species’ survival.
Wisdom leads to cooperation ⇒ From an evolutionary perspective, the survival of the human species requires cooperation. And cooperation requires certain cognitive abilities:
Planning
Perspective taking,
Coordination.
How to Become Wise (Robert Taibbi 2018)
Robert Taibii is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 46 years experience, primarily in community mental health. He’s the author of 11 books?
The characteristics of wisdom:
Self-honesty
Honesty with others
Prioritizing the processes over outcomes
Listening to your gut
Learning from mistakes
Perspective? (Note to self: this word keeps coming up and I find it fairly useless.)
Having purpose
Being kind to others
Wisdom (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2013)
What is wisdom?
There are five general approaches to understanding what it takes to be wise:
(1) wisdom as knowledge (or “epistemic”) humility
Socrates' view of wisdom, as expressed by Plato in The Apology, is an example of a humility theory of wisdom
Humility Theory 1 ⇒ you are wise if you believe you are not wise.
Humility Theory 2 ⇒ you are wise if you believe you do not know anything.
Humility theories of wisdom are not promising, but they do, perhaps, provide us with some important character traits associated with wise people:
Wise people, one might argue, possess epistemic self-confidence, yet lack epistemic arrogance.
Wise people tend to acknowledge their fallibility, and
Wise people are reflective, introspective, and tolerant of uncertainty.
(2) wisdom as epistemic accuracy
Epistemic Accuracy Theory 1: You are wise if and only if for all propositions, you believe you know a proposition if and on if you actually know it.
A wise person is accurate about what she knows and what she does not know ⇒ But, wise people can make mistakes about what they know. ⇒ Socrates, Maimonides, King Solomon, Einstein, Goethe, Gandhi, and every other candidate for the honor of wisdom have held false beliefs about what they did and did not know.
Epistemic Accuracy Theory 2: You are wise if and only if for all propositions, you believe you know a proposition if and only if your belief in it is highly justified.
Takeaway: wise people have epistemically justified, or rational, beliefs.
(3) wisdom as knowledge
An alternative approach to wisdom focuses on the idea that wise people are very knowledgeable people.
Many have stated knowledge as a necessary condition of wisdom:
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics VI, ch. 7),
Descartes (Principles of Philosophy),
Richard Garrett (1996),
John Kekes (1983),
Keith Lehrer & Nicholas Smith (1996)
Robert Nozick (1989),
Plato (The Republic),
Sharon Ryan (1996, 1999),
Valerie Tiberius (2008),
Dennis Whitcomb (2010)
Linda Zagzebski (1996)
Aristotle distinguished between two different kinds of wisdom:
Theoretical wisdom ⇒ “scientific knowledge, combined with intuitive reason, of the things that are highest by nature”
Practical wisdom ⇒ Knowledge of how to live well.
Wisdom as Extensive Factual Knowledge: You are wise if and only if you have extensive factual knowledge about science, history, philosophy, literature, music, etc.
(Extensive factual knowledge is not enough to give us what a wise person knows ⇒ Wisdom requires practical knowledge about living.)
Wisdom as Knowing How To Live Well: You are wise if and only if you know how to live well.
Wisdom is not just one type of knowledge, but diverse. What a wise person needs to know and understand constitutes a varied list:
the most important goals and values of life
what means will reach these goals without too great a cost;
what kinds of dangers threaten the achieving of these goals;
how to recognize and avoid or minimize these dangers;
what different types of human beings are like in their actions and motives (as this presents dangers or opportunities);
what is not possible or feasible to achieve (or avoid);
how to tell what is appropriate when; knowing when certain goals are sufficiently achieved;
what limitations are unavoidable and how to accept them;
how to improve oneself and one's relationships with others or society;
knowing what the true and unapparent value of various things is;
when to take a long-term view;
knowing the variety and obduracy of facts, institutions, and human nature;
understanding what one's real motives are;
how to cope and deal with the major tragedies and dilemmas of life, and with the major good things too.
Many philosophers believe that being wise also includes action (not knowledge alone)
Wisdom as Knowing How To, and Succeeding at, Living Well: You are wise if and only if: 1) you know how to live well and 2) you are successful at living well.
(4) a hybrid theory of wisdom
You are wise if and only if:
You have extensive factual and theoretical knowledge.
You know how to live well.
You are successful at living well.
You have very few unjustified beliefs.
There is a very serious problem with the Hybrid Theory ⇒ As human knowledge increases, people in the past become less wise based on this theory. (Having lived in the past, should not count against being wise.)
We need a theory of wisdom that focuses on having rational or epistemically justified beliefs
(5) wisdom as rationality.
Wisdom is a deep and comprehensive kind of rationality.
Deep Rationality Theory (DRT): You are wise if and only if
You have a wide variety of epistemically justified beliefs on a wide variety of valuable academic subjects.
You have a wide variety of justified beliefs on how to live rationally (epistemically, morally, and practically).
You are committed to living rationally.
You have very few unjustified beliefs and you are sensitive to your limitations.
This theory does not require knowledge or perfection ⇒ But it does require rationality.
The Book of Proverbs and related videos (2016)
Three books in the bible called the “wisdom literature” (books about living a “good” life)
Proverbs ⇒ any one can make good decisions by tapping into the wisdom of God (“chokhmah” in Hebrew) ⇒ fear the lord...
Ecclesiastes ⇒ wisdom does not equal success ⇒ we are meaningless in the scheme of things ⇒ we are all going to die ⇒ life is random / not always fair ⇒ time and chance happen to all ⇒ stop trying to control life / stop worrying / live in the moment ⇒ ⇒ fear the lord...
Job ⇒ God’s wisdom is beyond your comprehension ⇒ trust God’s wisdom no matter what ⇒ fear the lord...
They address the same set of questions:
What kind of world are we living in?
What does it look like to live well in this world?
What is Wisdom? (2016)
Philosophers Valerie Tiberius and Philip Kitcher and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett give their insights on how wisdom can be defined.
At the core of wisdom is who you are and what decisions you need to make to be your best self.
Wisdom varies from situation to situation
Additional reading for later: