To Be or Not To Be

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

~A Wise Man Said~

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Saturday, June 27, 2020
 
I am musing on an interesting question today: what is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?

These words are very often used together, sometimes as complementaries, sometimes as oppositions... some think one cannot exist without the other, some think former is factual and latter the application of the factual... there are many ways in which people understand these terms and yet we use them as if it means the same thing to all people. I think the context in which these terms are used also changes their meaning so we might sarcastically say of someone who has arrogantly bungled a situation that so and so in his or her great wisdom decided to do such and such a thing which has turned out quite differently. Not that we mean something very specific when we use the word in this context—interchange it with knowledge and the sentence seems to mean the same.
I personally see knowledge and wisdom as two very different things. I fundamentally see knowledge as a "material" acquisition or acquisition of what can be called data or facts relating to the material world. Even if one collects data or facts relating to the subjective or social world it would still be a kind of knowledge even if not of the hard variety. Wisdom on the other hand is not about direct apprehension of the material world and does not grow from facts, hard or soft. I see it as an intuitive grasp or sense of the essence of things rather than a factual understanding or study of the material properties of things. I see it as an intuitive sense of balance, of appropriateness, of harmony, of beauty, of the good, of virtue... of the things that transcend empirical knowledge.

posted by Sylvia D'souza at 3:11 am 0 comments
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