Philosophy Now Forum

Jaded Sage wrote:Haj, do you have answers to my questions?

I think you have one question: what is wisdom.

I have an answer for you.

Wisdom is more than mere application of things learned and intelligence to figure out the causality effects of reality.

I think wisdom has the added feature of add-on value by having the wise person correctly guessing an outcome via intuition and without working out all the intervening steps en route to arrive in an explanation of a causative process from A to B.

What I meant is that wisdom is an assurance by the self and for others, that a wise person will not have to work out all the details of a logical proof or similar, and yet he or she will still arrive at the right conclusion. This has two benefits: speed, and beside the saving of time, a saving of mental energies expended.

That's one way to be wise.

Jade, I appreciate that you listened to my plea, and included a reference in the instance to me, when you asked this new question quoted. I hope you keep up the good work of learning useful forum skills and adhering to their practice. A heartfelt and warm thanks!!

hajrafradi wrote:Whereas we, atheists are a "school of atheists", or "an academy of atheists", or an "obviously-smarter-than-a-stupid-fundamentalist of atheists". Fundamentalists have the right to their claim of righteousness; we have the right to our claim of being right.

I'm an agnostic so I have no claim at all. Not quite wise either, so it seems. I did an online wisdom test last night and I scored 3.8, while people who are actually wise apparently would score between 4 and 5.

Jaded Sage wrote:Meh, wisdom is a certain way of thinking, maybe a certain set of opinions.

One might say, "the above is insufficient as a definition, it has got less informative value than a mere example even."

The statement you offered is correct; but it has no informative value.

Consider, please, these similar examples:

What is a similar example? Anything that is not dissimilar too much.

What is information value? A quality.

What does it mean, to consider something? It means the infinitive of a transitive verb.

Who created the world, and why? An entity, most likely, or not an entity. Why? for a reason, or else for no reason whatsoever.

Greta wrote: I'm an agnostic so I have no claim at all. Not quite wise either, so it seems. I did an online wisdom test last night and I scored 3.8, while people who are actually wise apparently would score between 4 and 5.

I wonder if an online Turing tests exists. And secondly, how many people would actually be able to pass it. (I may have misspelled "Turing". Tourig? Turig? Turgid?)

Jaded Sage wrote:Meh, wisdom is a certain way of thinking, maybe a certain set of opinions.

Thinking is not wisdom.

Thinking occurs before or after wisdom.

Wisdom itself is action or inaction that is appropriate to a situation.

Sometimes it's wise to ride em cowboy and yell "Yeee Hawww!" In a stampede, for instance, or if you can wear the hat likkered up and celebrating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5vqQLCo1U

hajrafradi wrote:

Jaded Sage wrote:Haj, do you have answers to my questions?

I think you have one question: what is wisdom.

I have an answer for you.

Wisdom is more than mere application of things learned and intelligence to figure out the causality effects of reality.

I think wisdom has the added feature of add-on value by having the wise person correctly guessing an outcome via intuition and without working out all the intervening steps en route to arrive in an explanation of a causative process from A to B.

What I meant is that wisdom is an assurance by the self and for others, that a wise person will not have to work out all the details of a logical proof or similar, and yet he or she will still arrive at the right conclusion. This has two benefits: speed, and beside the saving of time, a saving of mental energies expended.

That's one way to be wise.

Jade, I appreciate that you listened to my plea, and included a reference in the instance to me, when you asked this new question quoted. I hope you keep up the good work of learning useful forum skills and adhering to their practice. A heartfelt and warm thanks!!

I had two other questions. Why ignore them.

That sounds more like intuition than wisdom.

hajrafradi wrote:

Jaded Sage wrote:Meh, wisdom is a certain way of thinking, maybe a certain set of opinions.

One might say, "the above is insufficient as a definition, it has got less informative value than a mere example even."

The statement you offered is correct; but it has no informative value.

Consider, please, these similar examples:

What is a similar example? Anything that is not dissimilar too much.

What is information value? A quality.

What does it mean, to consider something? It means the infinitive of a transitive verb.

Who created the world, and why? An entity, most likely, or not an entity. Why? for a reason, or else for no reason whatsoever.

I've already gone over this. I've never heard the phrase informative value before. If it is technical, I cannot say if it does have it or not. But I can definitely say it is informative. This new sense of the word is new to me too. I only realized it last week. It will take time.

Walker wrote:

Jaded Sage wrote:Meh, wisdom is a certain way of thinking, maybe a certain set of opinions.

Thinking is not wisdom.

Thinking occurs before or after wisdom.

Wisdom itself is action or inaction that is appropriate to a situation.

Sometimes it's wise to ride em cowboy and yell "Yeee Hawww!" In a stampede, for instance, or if you can wear the hat likkered up and celebrating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5vqQLCo1U

That's good! I'm using that. Wisdom is a certain way of thinking that is appropriate to the situation.

Jaded Sage wrote:

Walker wrote:

Jaded Sage wrote:Meh, wisdom is a certain way of thinking, maybe a certain set of opinions.

Thinking is not wisdom.

Thinking occurs before or after wisdom.

Wisdom itself is action or inaction that is appropriate to a situation.

Sometimes it's wise to ride em cowboy and yell "Yeee Hawww!" In a stampede, for instance, or if you can wear the hat likkered up and celebrating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5vqQLCo1U

That's good! I'm using that. Wisdom is a certain way of thinking that is appropriate to the situation.

cobble cobble

All compliments to my teachers. I ain't makin nothin up.

hajrafradi wrote:

Greta wrote: I'm an agnostic so I have no claim at all. Not quite wise either, so it seems. I did an online wisdom test last night :lol: and I scored 3.8, while people who are actually wise apparently would score between 4 and 5.

I wonder if an online Turing tests exists. And secondly, how many people would actually be able to pass it. (I may have misspelled "Turing". Tourig? Turig? Turgid?)

Some interesting thoughts abut "Turgid" Tests :) http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2015072 ... uring-test

Wisdom is actually straightforward to define. To be wise you need calm acceptance of life's highs and lows combined with relatively reliable viewpoints. Then add impulse control - the willpower, capacity and motivation - to follow through on priorities, especially when under pressure. Generally those who are solid under pressure have underlying memes they refer to to keep then strong during hard times, the ideas acting a bit like a slavers drum on a longboat.

All this is theoretical, of course, the somewhat crazed hedonist writing this post is not wise, only her aspirational self. George Bernard Shaw once observed that humans would need to live to be 300, which might be an exaggeration.

That's not bad. But it's not quite right. I feel like it includes a lot of that but it's more than all of that. Much more.

...being able to constructively deal with chaos and all that appears to be random as a brain muscle builder.

Greta wrote: All this is theoretical, of course, the somewhat crazed hedonist writing this post is not wise, only her aspirational self.

ReGrettably, you have disproved my very first post in this thread. (With a hoarse, dry voice: ) Congratulations, Dr. G. Holmes.

Whether you are wise or not, I am not to judge that; but let me assure you that the appearance of being wise is overrated, and being wise has no added social advantage over appearing to be wise. And ultimately an appearance of wisdom can be easily, stupendously easily, attained by never saying a word in company.

Most people fail this, because people can't shut up, given any even slight opportunity to say something. Hence the popularity of Internet forums.

I would also add that wisdom is a transient quality, for most people; and wisdom is not absolute, but relative. Furthermore, it is liable to be situation-driven as well. What gets you a Nobel-prize nomination in one country, has a perfect chance to get you into the loonie bin or in front of the firing squad in another country.

Getting at the definition of wisdom from a relativity theory angle, a person is wiser than the other if calmer, his/her gross prophet margin is narrower (i.e. more precise in the predictions), and sees a bigger picture with more clarity; the meme is more impressive or the wise person is more impressionable to memes; and finally, if he or she is Jewish with the last name "Wiser", as opposed to simply "Weiss".

Jaded Sage wrote: I had two other questions. Why ignore them.

Hola. I don't know how possibly I could have missed them. Please issue a new post here stating the other two questions. I can't find them in this hajstack.

So we are definitely saying then that there is a difference between wisdom and intelligence, and wisdom is greater, meaning both more important and involving something more, and sometimes, if not often, includes a measure of intelligence. Is that correct?