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Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey
I would say that wisdom is a viewpoint extracted from knowledge *and* experience.  |
Wisdom is a viewpoint? Explain yourself!!
IMO, Wisdom is being able to predict the world as a result of having experienced it already. It's litterally knowledge of the future obtained by understanding the past.
For example, a young, un-wise person may thing that a 3 day long bachelor party in Vegas is a good idea. Those of us that are more wise will predict that the party is actually going to be a nightmare, full of pain and misery. Our past experiences, <cough>Mexico<cough>, have given us the experience to know that your bachelor party is going to kick our asses.
Another example... I can read in a book and learn that some hypothetical snake's venom will make a man sick for 7 days. That's pure knowledge. I can also be bitten by the snake and learn 1st hand it takes 7 days to get over the venom. That's wisdom... I obtained my knowledge of the snake through 1st hand experience.
The importance of wisdom, it that it tends to be more useful and detailed than pure knowledge. I can read about properly apexing a corner, but until I do it, my cornering knowledge is incomplete. Or back to the snake... having been bitten not only tells me that the venom lasts for 7 days, it also tells me what the venom sickness feels like.
The human brain evolved to learn through experiences. Pure book learning simulates experiences, but not to the same fidelity as truly experiencing it. However, book learning also tends to be much faster than experience. It would take forever to get through a physics class if everyone had to get a kite, a key, and a thunderstorm to understand electricity.
But in the end, Wisdom is simply another brand of Knowledge. That's why I listed "Knowledge" as the meaning of life... for the purpose of this poll, it's not important how you aquire the knowledge, it's just important that it's your goal. A 15th Century Explorer and a 20th Century physist both dedicated their lived to knowledge, tho their methods are vastly different.
Wow... that got long... and my wisdom tells me most people won't bother to read it, simply cuz it's long..