Monday, September 28, 2020

What is wisdom? (No Answers Here)



Growing up I always thought that intelligence was the most important quality a person could have.
I believed my mom was smart and my dad was dumb. Turns out my mom is intelligent. Alternatively, characterizing my dad as dumb might be disingenuous as it is filtered through anger and resentment.

Now, as I realize more and more the limitations in my intelligence and desire to know things I think that I would like to focus on being wise. But what does that mean?

Is there a minimum intelligence requirement for wisdom?

Am I smart enough to be wise one day?

Is the love of wisdom a more noble pursuit than the love of knowledge?

Knowledge of reality, including that of one's own internal and external reality, is important for the ability to imagine and understand actions and reactions. Networks of cause and effect are complex and someone that can decipher them might be considered to be wise.

Does one only need to sound wise to be considered wise?

Does one only have to be smarter or wiser than the next wisest or smartest person to be perceived as wise?

Does wisdom come from experience and so someone cannot be wise or speak wisely on a topic if they have no first-hand experience? I don't think this is true although there is great value in personally experiencing things one can learn of more things through detached education, such as lectures.

It is oftentimes more efficient to obtain knowledge through indirect routes. Also, many things cannot be leaned through strict physical actions. Skills typically require direct physical actions but much of science and philosophy relies on abstract logical formulations.

One must start with information to start building a deep and accurate model of reality, including human psychology, in order to understand the complexities of nature. Is it a matter of understanding the connections between elements and the networks of life that someone becomes wise? 

Is wisdom found in books, or in experiences? 

Is wisdom found plumbing the depths of consciousness or in the external world of senses?

How does a wise person participate in social situations?

How does a wise person participate in conversations?

Does a wise person just answer questions or do they ask the right questions?

How does one know they self?

Maybe wisdom is a pretentious pursuit?

Maybe it is just a facade to say one loves wisdom? Just a nice thing to tell yourself and others to give you an heir of sophistication. Just pretentiousness?

What is the goal of wisdom? What is it's output? What does it lead to?

If wisdom is not about life then what should it be about? 

How much of life should be for relaxing and how much should be for working? Does it depend on your means? Does it depend on your passion? Does it depend on your will?

Is wisdom about understanding others? If so then wisdom includes emotional information which tends to be abstract and subjective making it difficult to rely solely on calculable information. 

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