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RE: Are You Smart or Wise?

in #philosophy7 years ago (edited)

To me, intelligence can be destructive on the world where wisdom cannot be so. Let's pretend there are two people, one with only the intelligence to build an atom bomb but lacking in wisdom. The other person has the intelligence to build the atom bomb but also has wisdom. The wise person would not have built such a thing even with the intelligence to do so. Where the intelligent person is just looking to "further his craft" without any concern for how it would affect the world.

This is why our modern world has been taught to celebrate intelligence much more than wisdom. Intelligent people can be much easier manipulated by those in power to further their ends and those with wisdom cannot.

A story from Utah Phillips goes as so: He was hanging out in a town doing nothing productive when a man came up to him and said 'Why don't you get a job?' Utah being a well read man and being aware of the Socratic method asked him 'Why?' the man replies 'You can earn some money that way' Utah continues with his socratic method and asks again 'Why?' The man says 'you can earn so much money that you could save up and live good and never have to work again' Utah replies 'Thats what I'm doing now'. That is wisdom to me.