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[happy_doughnut]

2003, a single year within the information age. With all of the electronics and virtual realities, are we losing sight of our own, of the true reality? Information, information is composed of tried and true facts. Knowledge, information gathered is knowledge. Wisdom, knowledge understood becomes wisdom. Which do we hold to be more valuable in this day and age? Have we sacrificed the greater virtue because it is just too hard to obtain?

Information. Not much can be said for this, it isn't even a virtue, it's more or less, an object. That said, I'd also like to point out that it is the first stepping stone towards Knowledge and Wisdom.

Knowledge, the gathering of information within the human mind. Knowledge, as they say, is power. What power might i ask? The power to mindlessly recall information from within your memory, the power over a simple trivia game? But still, knowing this won't change others' minds. Especially within that of the American school system, which teaches it's young impressional students that knowledge takes precidence over wisdom, I am one of those students. It's not as though I hate knowledge, as it is the second rung in the ladder. My true hatred associated with Knowledge is that people believe this is the end of the education or learning.

Wisdom, it's what I seek, and possibly the last achievement that a man can earn (which is probably why wise people are always depicted as being old in age). To be wise is to understand the world, while someone with knowledge can tell you the route that a specific type of bird may take over the course of his journey south for the winter, a wise man will tell you why the bird goes south, why he takes the route and possibly what goes through the bird's head throughout the course of the trip. Not that being wise consist of the understanding of a bird's journey south, just an example of the differences between that of Knowledge and Wisdom. Wisdom, best defined, could probably be said to be the state in which everything becomes as common sense.

From the way I depicted these, you're more than likely to agree with me that Wisdom is more needed intoday's world. But from your own Experiences, which virtue would hold more ground? Why is that more important to you? is the a specific reason? If you're not sure, I would much rather you not take an uneducated guess at it.

I simply gave these brief, badly done explainations for those who wouldn't know the difference.



This is an interesting question I saw a while ago. I was going to ask the same here, in my own words, but decided that it was much better asked/stated by the person that initially asked this.

I think it's a pretty deep question; one that requires some thought.
So anyway, what are your takes on this. I'd like to hear from you guys what you think/ have to say about this

[Jubei]

Very deep, and extremely thought provoking. But I think what hes saying isnt so much a question, but more of a non judgemental judgement or an objective opinion if you like (pardon my french). That was my intitial intake, further reading brought about a new insight to it.

But after reading on about his mentioning of the American Education System, and those akin to the believe he stated, makes me feel more inclined to wonder if this is not just an extremely floral jibe at a society he dosent relate to.

But thats just my thoughts on the matters, you all could look on it as and laugh

[Rei]

I cannot agree with the above statement that knowledge understood becomes wisdom. Understanding is a step towards wisdom but it is not equal to its achievement. And that knowledge is gathered information... I'm not sure I agree with this definition too. For anybody nowadays has access to knowledge, because he has access to information, but the fact is knowledge is rare. Knowledge is more complex than simply gathering information, which is something anybody could do, as wisdom is more complex than simply understanding what you know. There are necessary information and unnecessary information. Both of them can become knowledge, according to the opinion of the person who's written this statement. And this is something I don't think it's true. For real knowledge is not the act of gathering the information, but the act of choosing, after you've gathered the info, and the act of judging too. Which implies you need to understand to gain knowledge as well, while wisdom is on an above level. It requires experience, intelligence, patience and much more. That's why wisdom is even more rare than knowledge IMO: because first of all it requires too much hard work on yourself. And if you ask me, not anybody is made for true Wisdom, like not anybody is made for philosophy (which are somewhat similar, from some points of view). You must be a real connoisseur of your person and of the mechanisms of your mind to become wise, you don't simply need to understand what you learn. But this is something that's not proper of our age. Wisdom has always been for an elite, not for anyone, and it'll always be like that. While knowledge is easier to obtain for some clever person nowadays.

[Preventer Wind]

I think what he is saying is that too many people go through school and are given half of the information. That half is knowledge. However, to truly understand something you must know the whole story....the other half....and that takes wisdom....or you gain wisdom that way. But too many people don't take the extra step towards wisdom because they don't see the value in it and feel that even if it was worth something it just to much work to obtain. That's what I got from reading....

As for my take...well it goes like this.

The person stated that knowledge is the gathering of information within the human mind. Well I think that is true to an extent. I think knowledge is the ability to gather information on something and then later be able to recall that information.

Wisdom is the not just the ability to know something but also why, where, when, and how. To understand it. I don't think age matters...It just helps. Seeing things with your own eyes over and over again gives a much more accurate description then anything anybody has ever written. I think everybody becomes wise in something. Some people are wise in many subjects others in just one.

I just don't think there is a need for wisdom as there was years ago with all the technology. It will probably go lower down the ladder.

A good book to read about something like this is The Giver by Lois Lowry.

[Vicious_2003]

Wisdom isnt something you get from a text book. Wisdom comes from experience, experiencing people, places, earned over time. With age comes a certain amount of wisdom, how much is determined by ones ability to rationalize and contemplate deep thought. (Ahem, this isnt meant as a counter point, just a point that stand by itself)

[Reid]

I think the easy difference between knowledge and wisdom is simply experience.

For example, you can tell anyone what it's like to lose a loved one and that's knowledge but wisdom is actually losing that person and experiencing it all first hand.

The old can be seen as wise simply because they've lived so much, but that doesn't mean that every elderly person is wise, it's only the ones that truly take in what they've seen that gain wisdom from it.

You could see a twelve year old who has been through a very tomoltuous childhood and learned to take something from that and he/she may be much wiser than an eighty year old who's seen a lot but simply drifted past it.

North American school systems provide us with plenty of knowledge and sometimes wisdom if you get the right course and teacher but it's true that marks come from spitting back out raw knowledge and the feelings and wisdom taken from it may not be easily expressed but are still learned.

Well, it's an interesting topic.

[Infernal Mass]

No wisdom will never die it's impossible, wisdom is perpetual.


*throws a piece of chicken at mena*

[Carlito]

I agree with Rei and Digimortal. Wisdom has never been common. Thus it'll never die. We're talking about abstractions here, all abstractions are more or less "perpetual". Sometimes they change name or they are influenced by the historical period, but they cannot disappear.

[BlackThornn]

Wisdom is less an abundance of knowledge, and more an abundance of mistakes learned from.