Philosophy Now Forum

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 3:35 am If you could wish for one thing, would wisdom be that which you would wish for? However, what if you only had one wish (guaranteed to come true) and wisdom and happiness are not the same thing? Which is best to wish for? Or if neither of those is best, what is?

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 3:35 am If you could wish for one thing, would wisdom be that which you would wish for? However, what if you only had one wish (guaranteed to come true) and wisdom and happiness are not the same thing? Which is best to wish for? Or if neither of those is best, what is? I suppose such a question pertains most immediately to what ought to be focused on in life.

• Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act productively using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.[1]
  Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment,[2] and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom

Agent Smith wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 10:48 am Wisdom is what I would wish for, yeah! That's the only thing a philosopher would wish for and happiness too, if available that is.

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Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 1:38 pm

Agent Smith wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 10:48 am Wisdom is what I would wish for, yeah! That's the only thing a philosopher would wish for and happiness too, if available that is.

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I guess another way of articulating the "one wish" formula, or rationalizing the scenario, is if push comes to shove and one goal in life were to come in conflict with or at the expense of other goals, which goal is the most important or which one would or should override all others?

Agent Smith wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 10:48 am Wisdom is what I would wish for, yeah! That's the only thing a philosopher would wish for and happiness too, if available that is.

Veritas Aequitas wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:01 am

Agent Smith wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 10:48 am Wisdom is what I would wish for, yeah! That's the only thing a philosopher would wish for and happiness too, if available that is.

The fishes [wisdom and happiness] don't come to you from thin air, you have to learn how to fish for them effectively.
'Wisdom' in a way is a skill.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 3:35 am If you could wish for one thing, would wisdom be that which you would wish for? However, what if you only had one wish (guaranteed to come true) and wisdom and happiness are not the same thing? Which is best to wish for? Or if neither of those is best, what is? I suppose such a question pertains most immediately to what ought to be focused on in life.

Is wisdom a thing someone can wish for? Or is it something only either possessed by someone or not possessed by them, and which one uses when making wishes for things that can be wished for? Or is the word "ought" not ultimately applicable to that which one decides to do?

For my part, I can't see very well how happiness should be subordinate to anything. Although, there is a sense in which happiness at all costs might not be an OK way to proceed in life. Christianity is well noted for the belief that a person cannot serve two masters and that which is their master is best to be God. I mean, maybe for a society to flourish and thrive, it's best to serve something other than the self. So we're told we should serve God. Then we hope that the reward is heaven or something in another world greater than happiness (at least happiness in this world).

Perhaps, there are problems banking entirely on this world. I mean, would it be fair if some people were screwed in this world and not compensated in some fashion. Would there not be more unrest? Is religion, then, the opium of the dispossessed or is it the justice of the dispossessed?

Next up: if your one wish is for happiness, how would you envision that wish coming true? Should it involve happiness that is least easily lost (happiness that doesn't depend on fleeting or temporary whims or on things that are of short duration)?