Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the word wisdom as “the quality of being wise; power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action, based on knowledge, experience, understanding, etc.; good judgment; sagacity (penetrating intelligence and sound judgment).” In this paper, I will present my interpretation of one instance of how wisdom is obtained and hopefully passed on.
I perceive wisdom as the ability to make the best decision or select the best course of action according to the current situation with respect to prior similar situations and their outcomes. Wisdom is what I like to call acquired knowledge over time and experience. Wisdom is often associated with a formal education. On the other hand, you may
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Now let us look at the work environment the now grown children have to cope with. Trying to maintain a comparable standard of living to which they were accustomed under the roof of their parent’s house is harder than they had imagined. For someone just starting down the road to independence alone, or with peer help, it is a long and tough journey towards that comfortable utopia that was taken for granted while residing with their parents. Once the realization hits that they will be paying all the bills, there will be at least two more mind-boggling realizations. The first would be how much unforeseen money is spent on everyday living to include the basic utility bills like water, electricity, trash and sewer, and maybe gas. This will bring to life their parents constant complaining about running water down the drain, leaving the refrigerator door open, and many other wasteful habits kids had growing up. All of a sudden they realize how much money was thrown away just from the food they’d left on their plates. Now name brand foods are considered a luxury. The second would be the sacrifices they would have to make to be sure that there will be enough money to get to the end of the month. They might have to put up with a job they don’t like or long hours to make enough money to pay the bills. The thought that they can’t quit a job because of inconvenient hours is just another taste of reality. A second job might be necessary to help make ends meet.
In order to become a hero the trait of wisdom must be presented in an individual, this is because without wisdom you would not be able to lead others into success. In The Once and Future King, King Arthur is taught by a magician named Merlyn who turns him into different animals to learn lessons that he soon uses in his later life as King. This passage below explains that wisdom is something that must be experienced with time:
Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, there is one character who shows a tremendous amount of wisdom. Atticus shows his wisdom throughout the story by teaching Scout how to be young wise girl and teaching her how to read and write. Shows Jem how to be wise and knowledgeable , and shows it in the defending of Tom Robinson.
Wisdom is one of the traits of hero, but what is wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to make the right judgment, the right decision, because the situation is fully understood. A wise person has a complete understanding of the situation and makes the soundest decision for the best result. The connotation for a wise person is a person that
As a New York businessman in the early 20th century launching into a new era of industrial growth in business, maximizing profits is a top priority. Employing as many workers as possible, with as little pay as possible is the goal. Company’s can do this because the new implementation of machines in their factories is on the incline, putting unskilled labor at the bottom of the pay scale. Why pay top dollar for a worker to do the same job a machine can do faster and for less? Unskilled labor in big factories were now the only job people can get, forcing them to accept pay that is next to nothing. Children are being put to work now by their families to help bring home
An examination of contextual similarities reveals that both texts clearly laud the value of wisdom. Koheleth says to have "set [his] mind to study and to probe with wisdom all that happens under the sun" (1:13) in much the same way that Socrates dedicates himself to a life of thought. Though Koheleth warns, "as wisdom grows, vexation grows" (1:18), he decides after exploring the alternatives that "vexation is better than revelry"(7:5) and that "wisdom is more of a stronghold to a wise man than ten magnates that a city might contain" (7:19). Socrates offers a similar explanation: "there is no way to escape form evil or salvation for it except by becoming as good and wise as possible" (107c-d). Clearly these two men, aged and at a pinnacle of wisdom from which they can view their prior follies,
1) Wisdom is thought to be the collective and individual experience of applying knowledge to the solution of problems.
In chapter 12, the grandfather taught his grandson wisdom by allowing him to learn from his own mistakes, as had his grandfather before him. The first time I remember learning about wisdom was when I was about six. I had been trying to convince my mother that, since it smelled so good, vanilla extract had to taste amazing. Long story short she told me otherwise, I didn’t listen, and I ended up in a spitting, gagging mess. Wisdom means acquiring many small pieces of knowledge over a lifetime and knowing when and how to put them to use when and where a situation arises in which those particular pieces of information are required. Wisdom is life’s gift to us for trying to demonstrate all the virtues that give meaning to
Philosophers are known to question, analyze and evaluate everything but do not always end with concrete conclusions. Plato’s Euthyphro and Apology, to no surprise, highlight one of such debate: the human characteristics of wisdom. Though Plato was one of the earliest philosophers, the topic of wisdom is still debated by modern philosophers today, contemplating questions such as “What are the classifications of ‘wisdom’?” According to Plato’s two dialogues, the characteristics of wisdom have a strong correlation with the characteristics of “being a good person”. This concept highlights the values of virtue and selflessness and at the same time juxtapose views on virtue while taking into account the different forms of rationality. In this paper, I will highlight how Plato uses his two dialogues to enforce his own opinion about the relationship between being wise and being a good person, and evaluate the inconsistencies within this claim.
First of all, my family is Chinese. My parents immigrated into the United States 15 years ago from Hong Kong and so I am the first generation to go to college in the US. It is important to note that my parents did not come to the US so that they can attain a higher status but more so because they wanted to give me a chance to attain a higher status. When we first arrived my mother did not work, and my father’s first job was at a Asian supermarket. The pay was low and there was no coverage of any kind. We lived at my Aunt’s house until we managed to find public housing in Charlestown. Somewhere around that time my father managed to find a job at Boston Scientific as a Material Handler, and basically what he does it drive a forklift truck around a warehouse to find and move stock. The job change did not alleviate my father’s nor the family’s status. The pay was better and there is health insurance and retirement plans. However, even with my father working overtime, there is still simply a shortage in money especially when my twin brothers came along. That was when my mother decided that she needs to work too and she found herself working as a waitress at two Chinese restaurants. In terms of jobs, I think my parents did the best they could considering they speak little to no English and only have a high school education. There is simply not a wide range of options for
What does it mean to have wisdom? Some may say to be wise is to have enough knowledge and good judgment to make well thought out life decisions. Wisdom is a common term mentioned throughout out the New Testament Epistles and the entire Bible. The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom and knowledge. It talks about ways to be wise and ways to be foolish. Through out the Bible there seems to be different types of wisdom and it is described in different ways. Analyzing all types of wisdom and knowledge will help us decide what the Bible means to be wise.
Keith H. Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache delivers a strong message regarding human connections between place, identity, and origins in relation to the idea of place-names. Every place evokes an association to a story and/or a person/ancestor bearing a moral message that allows the Western Apache to shape their beliefs, behaviors, identities, etc. It is through this connection to the land that the Apache begin to define their understanding of their lives.
At present, humanity has vast amounts of knowledge, but still very little wisdom. Buckminster Fuller called this time our final evolutionary exam. Is our species fit to survive? Can we develop the wisdom that will allow us to use our prodigious powers for our own good, and for that of many generations to come? The question then arises: What can we do to facilitate the development of wisdom? This is where the wisdom traditions—the spiritual traditions found throughout human culture—have their value. They are often seen as simply religions, but most of the great religions were seeded by wise people, people who had, in one way or another, awoken to the deeper truths of life and then sought to share their wisdom with
When one says that this elderly person has wisdom from various life experiences, he/she is not saying that the elderly person knows much about books and their profession. Instead, one would be speaking about the elderly person’s vast knowledge about what is important in life due to their multitude of experiences. While the elderly person may not be completely wise in the most encompassing form of wisdom, the elderly person does appear to have a more expansive understanding of what is important in life. Simply knowing what matters in life, however, does not satisfy the ultimate form of wisdom, for the wise must know why these things matter in life. That is, a truly wise person must have insight beyond the theoretical, into the practical. Beyond this, a wise person, in this view, must also know how to achieve what matters most, and, in knowing so, do what matters most. I say this because a truly wise person would be able to act upon what they know to be the most important thing in life. It is wiser for a person to act than to merely conceptualize what is most essential in life.
What does it mean to be wise? Webster's Dictionary defines the word "wise" as being "marked by deep understanding, keen discerment". Through the telling of the ancient Mariner's tale, the Wedding-Guest became sadder and wiser. He became sad in that he identified himself with the shallow and self-absorbed mariner. However, the mariner changed his ways. The Wedding-Guest became wise through realizing that he himself needed to alter his ways.
Aristotle sustains that wisdom consists in knowing the cause which made a material thing to be what it is. For Aristotle, wise people know more than just what something is; they also know why it is what it is, or what causes it to be what it is. People with wisdom, for instance, a master worker understand not only that fire is hot, but also know why it is hot. Those with experience only, who do not know why something works in a certain manner, cannot teach. Say physicians understand that there is a relationship between the medical condition of this class of patients and the ingredients in this particular drug. They are then motivated to learn why the drug works on these