more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 9764

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 3. Wisdom Deflated ]

Full Idea

Professional philosophers have no peculiar fitness for inspirational and edifying writing, or helping to get society on an even keel (though we should do what we can). Wisdom may fulfil these crying needs: 'sophia' yes, but 'philosophia' not necessarily.

Gist of Idea

Inspiration and social improvement need wisdom, but not professional philosophy

Source

Willard Quine (Has Philosophy Lost Contact with People? [1979], p.193)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'Theories and Things' [Harvard 1981], p.193

A Reaction

This rather startlingly says that philosophy is unlikely to lead to wisdom, which is rather odd when it is defined as love of that very thing. Does love of horticulture lead to good gardening. I can't agree. Philosophy is the best hope of 'sophia'.

The 16 ideas with the same theme [doubts about the high status of wisdom]:

291 Don't assume that wisdom is the automatic consequence of old age [Plato]
7893 Our life is the creation of our mind [Anon (Dham)]
8766 In much wisdom is much grief [Anon (Ecc)]
20815 No wise man has yet been discovered [Stoic school, by Cicero]
6263 No wisdom could make us comfortably walk a wide beam if it was high in the air [Montaigne]
8093 Seek wisdom rather than truth; it is easier [Joubert]
7170 'Wisdom' attempts to get beyond perspectives, making it hostile to life [Nietzsche]
14890 Suffering is the meaning of existence [Nietzsche]
18290 But what is the reasoning of the body, that it requires the wisdom you seek? [Nietzsche]
19608 Wisdom is just the last gasp of a dying civilization [Cioran]
23064 So-called wisdom is just pondering things instead of acting [Cioran]
9764 Inspiration and social improvement need wisdom, but not professional philosophy [Quine]
9247 Life will be lived better if it has no meaning [Camus]
3240 There is more insight in fundamental perplexity about problems than in their supposed solutions [Nagel]
7490 Because of Darwin, wisdom as a definite attainable state has faded [Watson]
19695 The devil was wise as an angel, and lost no knowledge when he rebelled [Whitcomb]