Wisdom What Is Wisdom? If Term Paper

This humility is the element of wisdom that I did not understand prior to this course.

Of the philosophers that I studied, I found Plato's views of wisdom the most untenable. Plato tried to equate wisdom with truth. I understand that when he did so, he was speaking of the universal truth. However, I simply do not believe that there are sufficient universal truths to equate wisdom with truth. In any scenario with multiple people, there are multiple perspectives as to the truth. Therefore, there is no ultimate truth. He believed that philosophers studied reality, but reality is much more flexible and fluid than he acknowledged. Therefore, I find his concept of wisdom to be the least reasonable; it lacks the humility that I think is necessary for true wisdom.

Of the philosophers that I studied, I found that Aristotle's views seemed the most reasonable. Given their relationship, it is no surprise that Aristotle and Plato shared some views.However, Aristotle's approach to wisdom differed from Plato's in a significant way; Aristotle recognized the subjective nature of knowledge and the truth. He believed that philosophers sought wisdom, and that wisdom was knowledge having to do with certain principles or causes. However, he also cautioned people to look at the principles and causes. For example, he believed that the nature of society helped determine whether a man was wise; a society of the insane would not consider a sane man wise, just as a society of the sane does not consider an insane man wise. Aristotle seemed to grasp the subjective nature of the truth, which is so very important in shaping ideas of wisdom and philosophy. After all, the important questions in philosophy, such as the nature of being, the nature of wisdom, and the inherent goodness of mankind, have very different answers based on the surrounding society. To ignore this is to ignore wisdom......