Wisdom

[Dan L]

My main point in this thread is this:

Look around you, and you see a world with much knowledge, much intellect but little wisdom.

Even children these days have huge amounts of intellect- Just here on OB you can see them discussing intellectually deep topics (amid depression and "I'm new" threads).

However, where the world has much knowledge, logic, and intellect, it lacks the most valuable quality of all.

You can get far with knowledge- you can learn a lot about the world around you. You can learn a lot about making your own website, at quite a young age. You can debate the finer points of existence with your intellect and scientific or poetic reasoning.

And yet you can know all there is to know about everything around you- you can debate any point and win every time, yet you are not necessarily wise.

Intellect is what we use in order to know what to say; wisdom tells us when to speak and when to shut up.

Intellect allows Bible scholars to determine the exact meaning of scripture when it was written; wisdom tells us how to apply it to our lives.

Intellect tells us what is; Wisdom tells us what is important.



My question is- what do you see wisdom as, do you distinguish it from intellect, and do you consider the world to be lacking it?

[Zen]

[COLOR=darkred][SIZE=1]
I agree with you on this subject highly because wisdom and intellegence really are completely different. Intellect is having vast amounts of information, but wisdom is knowing how usfully apply this information to its fullest. There are many people who are smart, and any one could remeber facts of info, but very few are wise enough to use it to your advantage.

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[Semjaza]

For the most part, I usually equate wisdom with actual life experience. People can read about anything in the world online and claim they get it, spouting off facts (and not-so-facts) and everything else. So when someone is truly wise in a subject, I feel that they truly understand it from more than one angle and know how to apply it to actual situations.

Anyway, that's all I feel like saying heh.

[dark king]

intellect and wisdom are seperate things.
like intellect tells you 1+1=2
wisdom tells you what to do like open your eyes and see what is real.
wisdom does not build buildings.
wisdom can betray.
wisdom is the eye of truth one said.
and he found it by destroying.
wisdom wins from muscle.
and of intellect.
everyone likes to call themselves wise.
but the one not saying is.
wisdom exeeds power, freedom is made by the wise, why?
because they think freely.
wisdom is the slave of intellect.
wisdom is how to use the intellect.
wisdom is your mind.
only madness can overthrow wisdom.
really?
look around and tell me it is not.

wisdom i know exists in your soul.
never abandon it.
follow it and see.

i hope you like this.

[Mitch]

[size=1] Wisdom is how the trees blow in the wind, and they do not speak, only stand. Wisdom is how the air feels on my face as it cools me and numbs me. Wisdom is something that is in everything, as long as you choose to see it.

Wisdom is close to experience to me. But it comes more from being experienced in experience--meaning, being able to know something without even giving it a too certain overlook.

I've somewhat equated wisdom with old age. Old, decrepit men that are as gray as meek clouds. Wisdom is something that looks unendearing, yet once dug into with wanting fingers, the simple beauty is shown to you.

Ah, here. Here is what it says in my good-book, my bible, about wisdom:

[b]wis·dom [/b] ( P ) Pronunciation Key (wzdm)
n.
The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.
Common sense; good judgment: ?It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things? (Henry David Thoreau).

The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge: ?In those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations? (Maya Angelou).
Wise teachings of the ancient sages.
A wise outlook, plan, or course of action.
Wisdom Bible. Wisdom of Solomon.

Insight then. It's being able to take the sum of your parts that you own, and applying it to something that isn't a sum of your own parts, and knowing sure and certain how to absorb it to your sum parts and use it correctly.

I think it's principality. It's knowing the basics of what you know, and using that to simply come to a thought-out conclusion over some conundrum or crux. Common sense comes to mind--but I think this is common sense to its more higher extreme. Wisdom isn't something that's known, it's something that finds you from knowing principles and basises of the reality of situations, memories, some facts, failures, and so on. It's the sum of all your parts being used to ingest something that you've never ingested.

Wisdom is a lot more slow thing than common sense to me. Common sense is what [i]fosters[/i] wisdom, but you can't have wisdom just like that, and no common sense. They are stacking of one another. They build up from one another, like a baby growing to an adult. They must be born, nourished, and eaten and defecated daily for them to keep at the momentum they are. Just because you've finally gotten wisdom doesn't mean you fully have it. You need to keep using it daily, using pieces of your common sense as well as experience.

So, in short, wisdom is experience and common sense combined together in a sort of fascistal extreme.

Now, there's another side of me in this argument. My nihlistic side.

It's telling me that wisdom is just a word. It's simply a notion at some emotional or astute founding. And that is all that words are.

Also, wisdom can be imnumberable different things to different people. To one person it won't be at such a high and opulent standing; to another, it will.

But in the end it's just a word. A notion at something that is quizzically great to have. And really, you can never have something that isn't real, but only a ghost, only a notion. But you can excel to have it.

I'm getting a little verbose and even over myself, but I've gotten my point across.

As for wisdom in the world today. Of course there is some there. I think that people that choose to stand alone in what they believe are wise. I think people that see so many different sides to any one thing, and examine it highly before speaking, I think they are wise. But they aren't exteremely wise. They only have bits and pieces.

I think wisdom is mostly an unattainable thing, then. It's not a case of either you have it or you don't, it's more of a case that you gain it slowly, and have some of it, or you don't, and end up being ignorant to you and your surroundings[/size]

[wiccansamurai]

Wisdom is truth, and it hurts. You talked of depression boards, but maybe some of them see the truth? The world is full of gray, wisdom one of the few colors, but a color that can open a whole new world of gray. If there is a such thing as wisdom, I don't want any. I'm just trying to live. Truth is hard to see, but once wisdom opens yours eyes, you'd rather go blind.

[Doukeshi]

Wisdom, knowledge...can someone be wise but know nothing? I don't think so and yet some of the most foolish and ignorant people in the world can be wise in their own way. Wasn't it King James I who was described as "the wisest fool in christendom".

Wisdom comes with a certain amount of knowledge. It is knowing how to apply what you know and instead of simply learning for learning's sake it is the insight to use that learning for another purpous that is wise. With experience comes wisdom for I do not believe that we are born wise. We can know that a sharp object can harm us but it is wisdom that tells us that it is not a good idea to run it across our hand.

We all possess a small amount of wisdom if anything, I believe it is called 'common sense'. Wisdom can be a great many things but it is how you perceive the world that tells you how to apply it.

I am not so wise...are you?

[Dan L]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by wiccansamurai [/i]
[B]Wisdom is truth, and it hurts. You talked of depression boards, but maybe some of them see the truth? The world is full of gray, wisdom one of the few colors, but a color that can open a whole new world of gray. If there is a such thing as wisdom, I don't want any. I'm just trying to live. Truth is hard to see, but once wisdom opens yours eyes, you'd rather go blind. [/B][/QUOTE]

You misunderstand- I said "Just here on OB you can see them discussing intellectually deep topics (amid depression and "I'm new" threads)"

ie. I was saying that people discuss [i]intellectual[/i] topics, amid the others. I wasn't actually talking about wisdom in that little point ;)

[James]

[color=#707875]I think that the definition Mitch provided really hits the nail on the head.

Wisdom is something that one acquires through maturity and experience. I also think that knowledge and wisdom are intertwined; intellectualism [i]isn't[/i] the same as knowledge. You can have a high IQ, you can read a text book and quote it all back to me, but I think your comprehension and application of knowledge and information is more important than whether or not you remember it. It's about understanding, interpretation and appropriate use.

There are so many ways to look at wisdom. I guess that's my most brief thought on the subject.[/color]