ETYMOLOGY OF WISE:
Weid (PIE root of wise): "to see" (hence "to know"). [1]
Wis (Old English): "learned, sagacious, cunning; sane; prudent, discreet; experienced; having the power of discerning and judging rightly," [1]
Wisen (Middle English): “to advise, direct” [2]
Wisian (Old English): “to show the way, guide, direct” [2]
Wīsijan, wīsaną, wīsijaną (Proto-West Germanic): “to show the way, dispense knowledge” [2]
Weyd (Proto-Indo-European): “to know” [2]
Wijzen (Dutch): “to indicate, point out” [2]
Weisen (German): “to show, indicate” [2]
Vise (Danish and Norwegian Bokmål): “to show” [2]
Visa (Norwegian Nynorsk): "to show” [2]
COMBINED ETYMOLOGY:
Wise = To see, to know, to show, to judge [the best path], to guide
DEFINITIONS OF WISDOM:
The ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments [3]
Experience, knowledge, and good judgment [4]
The soundness of an action or decision [4]
The body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period [4]
Combination of experience, knowledge and careful judgment [5]
Accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment [5]
The trait of utilizing knowledge and experience with common sense and insight [5]
Ability to apply knowledge or experience or understanding or common sense and insight [5]
ability to discern inner qualities and relationships : INSIGHT [6]
good sense : JUDGMENT [6]
generally accepted belief [6]
accumulated philosophical or scientific learning : KNOWLEDGE [6]
COMBINED DEFINITION:
Wisdom = accumulate and apply knowledge, experience, common sense, understanding, enlightenment and insight in order to make good decisions, sound conclusions, careful judgements; with a deeper understanding of inner qualities, the connections and relationships between things, and reality as a whole.
Wisdom:
Accumulate and apply
knowledge,
experience,
common sense,
understanding,
enlightenment,
insight
in order to make
good decisions,
sound conclusions,
careful judgements,
with a deeper understanding of
inner qualities,
the connections and relationships between things,
and reality as a whole.
APPEAL TO PHILOSOPHY -
Wisdom involves Truth and Goodness
Philosophy, etymologically defined as "the love of wisdom" might give us some clues as to what wisdom is all about. There are many branches of philosophy, and it is somewhat subjective as to how they should be organized into different categories, but here is a framing of the branches of philosophy that I prefer:
Metaphysics:
Ontology
Cosmology
Philosophy of Mind
Epistemology:
Theory of Knowledge
Empiricism
Rationalism
Skepticism
Philosophy of Language
Philosophy of Science
Logic
Axiology:
Ethics
Metaethics
Normative Ethics.
Applied Ethics
Aesthetics
Political Philosophy
Philosophy of Religion
Given this paradigm of the structure of philosophy, we can begin to dissect what philosophy is all about. Metaphysics (and it's subcategories) seem to be involved with investigating the deeper aspects of reality, the elusive and somewhat unverifiable truths of reality. Epistemology, on the other hand, is oriented around building methods of verification for confirming truth. Axiology, as the study of values, encompasses all the things we care about, and how we evaluate those things. Axiology, then is the study of goodness, because that which we value is good to us. By framing philosophy this way, we can see a pattern, two of the branches of philosophy are focused on truth and one of the branches of philosophy is focused on goodness. If philosophy is the love of wisdom, then truth and goodness must be important aspects of wisdom.
WIKIPEDIA ON WISDOM [7]
The ability to contemplate and act productively using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.
Unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence, and non-attachment, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.
Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct;
Soundness of judgment in the choice of means and ends;
Acting with knowledge while doubting what one knows
The capacity to have foreknowledge of something, to know the consequences (positive and negative / pros and cons) of the available courses of action, and take the best of the available options.
Understanding why things are a certain way (causality), which is deeper than merely knowing things are a certain way.
ANCIENT CULTURES ON WISDOM [7]
Roman goddess Minerva represented skillful knowledge and the virtues (especially chastity). Her symbol was the owl, which is still a popular representation of wisdom, because it can see in darkness.
Inuit wisdom - "they can see what needed to be done and do it successfully without being told what to do."
According to the Doctrine of the Mean, Confucius said: "Love of learning is akin to wisdom."
In Taoism, wisdom is adherence to the three treasures: charity, simplicity, and humility.
In Taoism, "He who knows other men is wise [智];
In Baháʼí Faith scripture, "The essence of wisdom is the fear of God, the dread of His scourge and punishment, and the apprehension of His justice and decree."
In Baháʼí, wisdom is seen as a light that casts away darkness, and "its dictates must be observed under all circumstances". One may obtain knowledge and wisdom through God, his Word, and his Divine Manifestation; the source of all learning is the knowledge of God.
The Talmud teaches that a wise person can foresee the future (and consequences).
PSYCHOLOGY ON WISDOM [7]
Folk wisdom:
intelligence, perceptiveness, spirituality, and shrewdness
expertise in dealing with difficult questions of life
adaptation to the complex requirements
Psychological definition
meta-cognitive processes that afford life reflection and judgment about critical life matters.
Recognizing the limits of one's own knowledge,
Acknowledging uncertainty and change,
Attention to context and the bigger picture
Integrating different perspectives of a situation.
Coordinating such reasoning processes for insight into managing one's life.
The ability to deal with the contradictions of a specific situation
To assess the consequences of an action for themselves and for others.
Pursuing a balance between intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional interests
Coordination of "knowledge and experience" and "its deliberate use to improve wellbeing." Under this definition, wisdom is further refined as having the following facets:
Problem-solving with self-knowledge and sustainable actions.
Contextual sincerity to the circumstances with knowledge of its negative (or constraints) and positive aspects.
Value-based consistent actions with knowledge of diversity in ethical opinions.
Tolerance towards uncertainty in life with unconditional acceptance.
Empathy with oneself to understand one's own emotions, morals, and others' feelings
The ability to see oneself as part of a larger whole.
Cognitive processes that afford unbiased, sound judgment in the face of ill-defined life situations, including:
Intellectual humility, or recognition of limits of own knowledge
Appreciation of perspectives broader than the issue at hand
Sensitivity to the possibility of change in social relations
Compromise or integration of different perspectives
AGGREGATE DEFINITION OF WISDOM -
All of your mental resources:
Memory resources = knowledge, experience, love of learning,
Instinctual resources = common sense, initiative,
Cognitive resources = understanding, insight, prediction, calculation, option mapping, "to see in darkness", perceptive, able to process complexity,
Emotional resources = compassion, empathy, enlightenment, acceptance of uncertainty
Moral resources = ethics, benevolence, chastity, charity, simplicity, humility, fear of God (respect for game theory).
Meta-cognitive resources = unbiased stance, epistemic humility, recognize limits and constraints, self-reflection, self-knowledge, self-transcendence, premise analysis, big picture perspective, adaptive, see relationship between parts and the whole, ability to compromise and integrate perspectives.
Truth:
the past,
the present,
the future,
the circumstance,
the terrain,
the big picture,
the subjectivity of the collective,
the diversity of perspectives
the why,
what is at stake,
the pros and cons,
inner qualities,
the connections and relationships between things,
contradictions,
reality as a whole.
Goodness:
manage one's life,
guide others,
show the way,
solve problems,
make good decisions,
sound conclusions,
careful judgements,
ethical means and ends,
resolve difficult questions in life,
choose the best pathways,
sustainable actions,
seek balance between different interests,
maximize wellbeing.
SIMPLIFIED AGGREGATE DEFINITION:
Wisdom = Ability to coordinate all of your mental resources in order to understand the truth, so that you can bring about goodness.
WISDOM IN LIFE -
Wisdom involves direction
We already have seen how the etymology and mythology of wisdom point to an element of an ability to guide. Fundamental to the ability to guide is to be able to determine the right direction. Wisdom, defined as “the ability to coordinate all of your mental resources in order to understand the truth, so that you can bring about goodness” sets up a goal-oriented paradigm with truth operating as our current circumstance (starting point), goodness operating as our goal (destination), and a sense of direction operating as the arrow linking truth to goodness.
The better one understands where they are (point A), where they should go (point B), and the optimal path (direction), the more wise they are. This applies across many dimensions, not just in spatial navigation. This can apply to one’s character, one’s education, one’s career, and to one’s leadership roles. The better one understands one’s current character, one’s desired character, and the path of self-development, the more wise one is in the domain of character development. The better one understands one’s current level of education, the level of education that would be good for them, and the optimal path of obtaining education, the more wisely one can navigate to that future level of education. The better one understands one’s current value in the workforce, one’s desired career goal, and the path to climbing the corporate ladder, the more wise one is at navigating their professional life.
As a leader, the burden of wisdom lies upon your shoulders. It is up to you to guide the entire organization. You must leverage the resources of your organization to accumulate organizational truth, just as a wise individual leverages their mental resources to accumulate inner truth. This means training and then trusting your staff to collect relevant information and synthesize it into valuable reports about the current status of the organization (starting point). Then one must have a vision for where the company should be headed (destination). Finally, one must have an understanding of the operational landscape such that they can optimally navigate the company between point A and point B.
ARCHETYPE OF THE WISE OLD MAN -
Wisdom involves seeing a wider scope
When we think about the archetype of wisdom, our collective unconscious seems to imagine up the visage of a wise old man. His white hair exudes his accumulation of experience. His unkempt beard portrays a lack of care for the superficial things of the world, as there are deeper more important matters to attend to. His feeble nature shows us that he is not important for his physicality, but rather his mentality. His piercing eyes are evidence of his ability to see further into the distance, to comprehend the depths of situations, to know and understand complex realities.
Our etymology brings us into simple alignment with the archetype. The wise old man can see further, know more, show others the truth, judge the best path, and guide his people to a better place, either physically, culturally, or spiritually. We can think of the wise old man as a watchman on a tower. Because of his wisdom, he is able to see further into the distance, over and around obstacles that would normally block our vision. He can alert us to dangers that we are not yet aware of. He can see the best path to guide us to where we want to go.
WISE GAME THEORY -
Wisdom involves seeing deeper layers
We can also think about wisdom in terms of games. When one plays a game of chess, they can have a narrow focus or a wide focus. A narrow focus might be only concerned with the immediate threats that are close and obvious. In the following chess scenario, we can see that black queen has advanced towards white's army.
Imagine the player with a narrow scope of analysis. This player is the opposite of the wise old man on a tower. This player is the archetype of the foolish foot soldier that can't see beyond the mountains. A yellow circle shows this chess player's scope of analysis. They can't process too many variables at once, so they have to select a minority of the variables to analyze. When the black queen invades their territory, they place their limited scope of analysis around the black queen. As far as they can tell, their best option is to move the white pawn at G2 forwards one step. This will allow them to threaten black queen away from white's forces.
Unfortunately for this foolish player, they lacked the wisdom to make the right move. They couldn't see far enough to notice that there was a severe vulnerability nearby. Just outside their scope of analysis is a vulnerable pawn that could be consumed by black queen. Once black queen takes the white pawn at E4, she now has simultaneous access to threatening white king and taking white rook. Not only did white's move not protect the vulnerable pawn, it opened up a new channel of vulnerability to the rook!
Conversely, when a wise player is confronting this situation, they will be mentally situated at a higher vantage point. They will be able to see more of the information, understand more of the relationships at play, have greater access to the truth of the situation, and from that place of understanding be better able to calculate the best path forward. As you can see with the yellow circle, this time their scope of analysis is expanded large enough to see the vulnerable white pawn. They promptly move pawn at D2 up one square so as to diagonally protect pawn at E4. This fortifies their position without exposing any new vulnerabilities. This player was wise enough to guide their pieces to the right positions to better accomplish the goal of winning the game. They were able to use their expanded understanding of truth in order to make good moves.
But the wise chess player is not just able to see a large scope in space, they are also able to see a larger scope of time. Each move opens up a world of new possibilities for the future of the game. Each opponent move opens up a new world of possibilities once more. As player turns iterate into the future, there are thousands of possible game pathways. The wiser the player, the more deeply their mind is able to peer into these branching pathways.
SOCRATES ON WISDOM [7] -
Wisdom involves the epistemic dialectic
“I am wiser than this man; for neither of us really knows anything fine and good, but this man thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas I do not know anything, and do not think I do either.” - Socrates
This became immortalized in the phrase "I know that I know nothing" an aphorism suggesting that it is wise to recognize one's own ignorance and to value epistemic humility.
Socratic Wisdom = Accurate epistemic self-perception, knowledge, epistemic humility, skepticism, self-correction
The dialectic is often thought of in the following form:
Thesis → Antithesis → Synthesis
The above model of self-correction could be structured in the same form:
Prior Knowledge → Skepticism → New Knowledge
The dialectic is an iterative structure that allows for cycles of repetition for continuous improvement. By continually improving one's knowledge, one will have better and better access to truth, enhancing their relationship with wisdom.
CHRISTIANITY ON WISDOM -
Wisdom involves the moral dialectic
Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
James 4:10 "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."
Mark 6:12 "They went out and preached that people should repent."
Christian Wisdom = Accurate moral self-perception, moral knowledge, humility, repentance, self-correction
The above moral dialectic can be conceptualized as follows:
Prior Behavior → Repentance → New Behavior
This model of self-correction mirrors the iterative structure of the dialectic, fostering cycles of improvement. By consistently refining one's moral behavior, one progressively gains access to moral character, enriching their connection with wisdom.
Philosophy = Philo + Sophia
= Love of Wisdom
= the marriage of truth and goodness
= the thing which attempts to bridge the is-ought gap
Wisdom is when heart meets mind in balance
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