Wisdom 7.7

[Anais Wachowski]

Wisdomsapience, sagacity) is the act of using one's depth and breadth of knowledge and experience to do good by oneself and others.[1][2][3][4] Wisdom is the interpretating and understanding of knowledge that leads to greater insight (e.g., common sense).[5][6][7] Wisdom is a pragmatic kind of "praxis (process)" where one is constantly using metacognition.[8][9]

Wisdom is associated with compromise, intellectual humility, acceptance of uncertainty, and a cosmopolitanism of what is Good.[12] Wisdom contains virtues such as ethics and benevolence.[13][14] Wisdom is personified as femininity (i.e., Sophia).[2][15]

Charles Haddon Spurgeon defined wisdom as "the right use of knowledge".[19] Robert I. Sutton and Andrew Hargadon defined the "attitude of wisdom" as "acting with knowledge while doubting what one knows".[20]

In social and psychological sciences, several distinct approaches to wisdom exist,[13] along with techniques of operationalization[12] and measurement[18] of wisdom as a psychological construct. Wisdom is the capacity to have foreknowledge of something, to know the consequences (positive and negative) of the available courses of action, and take the best of the available options.[21]

Sapience ("sophia" in Greek) is "transcendent wisdom", "ultimate reality", or the ultimate truth of things.[16][14][22] This more cosmic, "big picture" definition is often how wisdom ("true wisdom" or "Wisdom" with a capital W) is considered in a religious context.[16][14] It transcends mere practical wisdom and may include deep understanding of self, interconnectedness, conditioned origination, and phenomenological insight.[23][16][14] A person with this type of wisdom can act with appropriate judgment, a broad understanding of situations, and greater appreciation/compassion towards other living beings.[23]

The word sapience is derived from the Latin sapientia, meaning "wisdom".[24] The corresponding verb sapere has the original meaning of "to taste", hence "to perceive, to discern" and "to know"; its present participle sapiens was chosen by Carl Linnaeus for the Latin binomial for the human species, Homo sapiens.

In the Star Wars universe, wisdom is valued. George Lucas incorporated spirituality and morals, recurrent in mythological and philosophical themes, into the films; one of his inspirations was Joseph Campbell's The Hero of a Thousand Faces.[30] The character Master Yoda from the films evokes the trope of the wise sage or "Oriental Monk",[31] and he is frequently quoted, analogously to Chinese thinkers or Eastern sages in general.[32][33] Psychologist D. W. Kreger's book The Tao of Yoda adapts the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching in relation to Yoda's thinking.[33] Knowledge is canonically considered one of the pillars of the films' Jedi knights, something expanded upon in the non-canon book The Jedi Path,[34] and wisdom can serve as a tenet for Jediism. The Jedi Code states: "Ignorance, yet knowledge."[35] In a psychology populational study published by Grossmann and team in 2019, respondents considered Yoda to be wiser than Spock, a fictional character from the Star Trek series, due to Spock's blind spot for emotion, which was positively associated with wise reasoning in people:[36] "Yoda embraces his emotions and aims to achieve a balance between them. Yoda is known to be emotionally expressive, to share a good joke with others, but also to recognize sorrow and his past mistakes".[37]

The ancient Greeks considered wisdom to be an important virtue, personified as the goddesses Metis and Athena. Metis was the first wife of Zeus, who, according to Hesiod's Theogony, had devoured her pregnant; Zeus earned the title of Mtieta ("The Wise Counselor") after that, as Metis was the embodiment of wisdom, and he gave birth to Athena, who is said to have sprung from his head.[40][41] Athena was portrayed as strong, fair, merciful, and chaste.[42]

Apollo was also considered a god of wisdom, designated as the conductor of the Muses (Musagetes),[43] who were personifications of the sciences and of the inspired and poetic arts. According to Plato in his Cratylus, the name of Apollo could also mean "ballon" (archer) and "omopoulon" (unifier of poles [divine and earthly]), since this god was responsible for divine and true inspirations, thus considered an archer who was always right in healing and oracles: "he is an ever-darting archer".[44] Apollo prophesied through the priestesses (Pythia) in the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), where the aphorism "know thyself" (gnōthi seauton)[a] was inscribed (one of the Delphic maxims).[45] He was contrasted with Hermes, who was related to the sciences and technical wisdom, and, in the first centuries after Christ, was associated with Thoth in an Egyptian syncretism, under the name Hermes Trimegistus.[46] Greek tradition recorded the earliest introducers of wisdom in the Seven Sages of Greece.[47]

To Socrates and Plato, philosophy was literally the love of wisdom (philo-sophia). This permeates Plato's dialogues; in The Republic the leaders of his proposed utopia are philosopher kings who understand the Form of the Good and possess the courage to act accordingly. Aristotle, in Metaphysics, defined wisdom as understanding why things are a certain way (causality), which is deeper than merely knowing things are a certain way.[b] He was the first to make the distinction between phronesis and sophia.[16]

According to Plato and Xenophon, the Pythia of the Delphic Oracle answered the question "who is the wisest man in Greece?" by stating Socrates was the wisest.[48] According to Plato's Apology, Socrates decided to investigate the people who might be considered wiser than him, concluding they lacked true knowledge:

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, as I do not know anything, do not think I do either.

The ancient Romans also valued wisdom, which was personified as Minerva or Pallas. She also represents 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. She was said to have been born from Jupiter's forehead.[51]

Odin is known for his wisdom, often as acquired through various hardships and ordeals involving pain and self-sacrifice. In one instance he plucked out an eye and offered it to Mmir, guardian of the well of knowledge and wisdom, in return for a drink from the well.[52]In another famous account, Odin hanged himself for nine nights from Yggdrasil, the World Tree that unites all the realms of existence, suffering from hunger and thirst and finally wounding himself with a spear until he gained the knowledge of runes for use in casting powerful magic.[53] He was also able to acquire the mead of poetry from the giants, a drink of which could grant the power of a scholar or poet, for the benefit of gods and mortals alike.[52]

Sia was the personification of perception and thoughtfulness in the mythology of Ancient Egypt. Thoth, married to Maat (in ancient Egyptian: order, righteousness, truth), was regarded as the being who introduced wisdom to the nation.[54][55]

Nicholas Maxwell, a philosopher in the United Kingdom, believes academia ought to alter its focus from the acquisition of knowledge to seeking and promoting wisdom.[58] This he defines as the capacity to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others.[59] He teaches that new knowledge and technological know-how increase our power to act. Without wisdom though, Maxwell claims this new knowledge may cause human harm as well as human good. He argues that the pursuit of knowledge is indeed valuable and good, but that it should be considered a part of the broader task of improving wisdom.[60]

Psychologists have begun to gather data on commonly held beliefs or folk theories about wisdom.[62] Initial analyses indicate that although "there is an overlap of the implicit theory of wisdom with intelligence, perceptiveness, spirituality, and shrewdness, it is evident that wisdom is an expertise in dealing with difficult questions of life and adaptation to the complex requirements."[63]

The field of psychology has also developed explicit theories and empirical research on the psychological processes underlying wisdom.[64] [13] Opinions on the psychological definition of wisdom vary,[13] but there is some consensus that critical to wisdom are certain meta-cognitive processes that afford life reflection and judgment about critical life matters.[65][12] These processes include recognizing the limits of one's own knowledge, acknowledging uncertainty and change, attention to context and the bigger picture, and integrating different perspectives of a situation.[66] Cognitive scientists suggest that wisdom requires coordinating such reasoning processes for insight into managing one's life.[67] Reasoning of this sort is both theoretically and empirically distinct from general (fluid or crystallized) intelligence.[68] Researchers have shown empirically that wise reasoning is distinct from IQ.[69]

Baltes and colleagues defined wisdom as "the ability to deal with the contradictions of a specific situation and to assess the consequences of an action for themselves and for others. It is achieved when in a concrete situation, a balance between intrapersonal, interpersonal and institutional interests can be prepared".[70] Balance appears to be a critical criterion of wisdom. Empirical research provides some support for this idea, showing that wisdom-related reasoning is associated with achieving balance between intrapersonal and interpersonal interests when facing personal life challenges, and when setting goals for managing interpersonal conflicts.[18][71]

Researchers also explore the role of emotions in wisdom.[72] Most agree that emotions and emotion regulation are key to effectively managing the kinds of complex and arousing situations that most call for wisdom. Much empirical research has focused on the cognitive or meta-cognitive aspects of wisdom, assuming that an ability to reason through difficult situations is paramount. So although emotions likely play a role in how wisdom plays out in real events (and in reflecting on past events), empirical studies were late to develop on how emotions affect a person's ability to deal wisely with complex events. One study found a positive relationship between diversity of emotional experience and wise reasoning, irrespective of emotional intensity.[73]

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