Knowing True Wisdom
By Victor Lim
1. Introduction
Wisdom is a very subjective topic and sometimes very loosely used in our daily context. Occasionally we can hear some phrases from some very well known person and people claims these phrases as wisdom. But when you really dig deeper into it, it may just be an opinion or a remark base on his or her understanding of a topic or an argument. Some may be even be a sarcastic quotes that no one can benefit from it. So, what is the true meaning of wisdom? As we experience the constant ups and downs of life, we continue to seek wisdom to solve these uncertainties. I believe understanding the difference between true wisdom and meaningless quotes is the first step towards getting wisdom.
2. Definition of Wisdom
The English word wisdom is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to see (hence also the origin of the term "I see" when one understands something). Oxford Dictionary defined wisdom simply as the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement. Herbert Lockyer'Nelson Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p 1103) defined wisdom as the ability to judge correctly and follow the best course of action, based on knowledge and understanding. I found a better definition of wisdom according to Psychologist Today. Wisdom involves an integration of knowledge, experience, and deep understanding that incorporate tolerance for the uncertainties of life as well as its ups and downs. There is an awareness of how things play out over time, and it confers a sense of balance. Wise people generally share an optimism that life's problem can be solved and experience a certain amount of calm in facing difficult decisions.
Probably one of the most comprehensive literature researched on wisdom was by Dlilp V. Jeste of Oxford University, Expert Consensus on Characteristics of Wisdom: A Delphi Method Report. There are further definition of wisdom from the literture.
The Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (Baltes & Smith, 1990; Baltes & Staudinger, 2000) defined wisdom as expert knowledge in the fundamental pragmatics of life that permits exceptional insight, judgment, and advice about complex and uncertain matters and expertise in the conduct and meaning of life. Sternberg’s (1990) balance theory focused on wisdom as application of tacit knowledge as mediated by values toward achievement of a common good through a balance among multiple interpersonal, intrapersonal, and extrapersonal interests in order to achieve a balance among adaptation to existing environments, shaping of existing environments, and selection of new environments.
From the various definitions of wisdom, we can see some common understanding of the term. I found the best definition of wisdom is an integration of knowledge, experience, insight, judgement and advice for the complex and uncertain matters of life, mediated by values towards a common good.
It is difficult to understand a subjective topic such as wisdom as the reference at which judgement is made is subjective. But I thought the understanding of the term wisdom can be substantiated with knowing the characteristics of wisdom which was the main study of the report. We will discuss a about the characteristics of wisdom in the next section.
Proverbs 4:7...The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
