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1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 2. Wise People

[sort of character traits which accompany wisdom]

32 ideas
Wise people choose inaction and silence [Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
     Full Idea: The sage keeps to the deed that consists in taking no action and practises the teaching that uses no words.
     From: Laozi (Lao Tzu) (Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) [c.530 BCE], I.II.6)
     A reaction: Notice that this is an active 'deed', and a positive 'practice'. He is not just recommending indifference and lethargy. Personally I don't find the advice very appealing, but it might be good if you live in 'interesting times'.
One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know [Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
     Full Idea: One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know.
     From: Laozi (Lao Tzu) (Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) [c.530 BCE], II.LVI.128)
     A reaction: A famous remark, which my western mind finds simply perplexing. It strikes me as wicked selfishness to keep your wisdom to yourself, and not try to persuade others to follow it. We are all in this together, I say.
Men who love wisdom must be inquirers into very many things indeed [Heraclitus]
     Full Idea: Men who love wisdom must be inquirers into very many things indeed.
     From: Heraclitus (fragments/reports [c.500 BCE], B035), quoted by Clement - Miscellanies 5.140.5
     A reaction: …which invites the question 'Is there anything that a wisdom-seeker should NOT be interested in?'
Good people are no different from wise ones [Plato]
     Full Idea: Socrates: Are good people any different from wise ones? No, they aren't.
     From: Plato (Cratylus [c.377 BCE], 398b)
     A reaction: This is Socrates's 'intellectualism', his view that being good is entirely a matter of reason and knowledge, and not a matter of habit or emotion. Do we still accept the traditional assumption that wise people are thereby morally good?
Philosophers become as divine and orderly as possible, by studying divinity and order [Plato]
     Full Idea: Because a philosopher's links are with a realm which is divine and orderly, he becomes as divine and orderly as is humanly possible.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 500d)
     A reaction: Can you be too orderly? Without order nothing of any interest (to gods or men) could ever happen.
Aristotle thinks human life is not important enough to spend a whole life on it [Nagel on Aristotle]
     Full Idea: Aristotle believes, in short, that human life is not important enough for humans to spend their lives on.
     From: comment on Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE]) by Thomas Nagel - Aristotle on Eudaimonia p.12
     A reaction: The explanation of why Aristotle values contemplation more highly than the moral virtues.
Wise people can contemplate alone, though co-operation helps [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: The wise man can practise contemplation by himself (though no doubt he does it better with fellow-workers).
     From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1177a32)
     A reaction: It is hard to argue with this balanced view of the individual versus team concept of philosophy.
It is not much help if a doctor knows about universals but not the immediate particular [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: If a doctor were to have a theoretical account without experience, knowing the universal but not the immediate particular, he will often err in treatment.
     From: Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 0981a25)
     A reaction: But acquaintance with particulars isn't the same as knowledge, which may require universals.
It is a great good to show reverence for a wise man [Epicurus]
     Full Idea: To show reverence for a wise man is itself a great good for him who reveres [the wise man].
     From: Epicurus (Principle Doctrines ('Kuriai Doxai') (frags) [c.290 BCE], 32)
     A reaction: It is characteristic of Epicurus to move up a level in his thinking, and not merely respect wisdom, but ask after the value of his own respect. Compare Idea 14517. Nice.
A wise man's chief strength is not being tricked; nothing is worse than error, frivolity or rashness [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero]
     Full Idea: Zeno held that the wise man's chief strength is that he is careful not to be tricked, and sees to it that he is not deceived; for nothing is more alien to the conception that we have of the seriousness of the wise man than error, frivolity or rashness.
     From: report of Zeno (Citium) (fragments/reports [c.294 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Academica II.66
     A reaction: I presume that this concerns being deceived by other people, and also being deceived by evidence. I suggest that the greatest ability of the wise person is the accurate assessment of evidence.
Wise men should try to participate in politics, since they are a good influence [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: The wise man will participate in politics unless something prevents him, for he will restrain vice and promote virtue.
     From: report of Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.121
     A reaction: [from lost On Ways of Life Bk 1] We have made modern politics so hostile for its participants, thanks to cruel media pressure, that the best people now run a mile from it. Disastrous.
Wise men are never astonished at things which other people take to be wonders [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: The wise man is astonished at none of the things which appear to be wonders, such as the caves of Charon or tidal ebbs or hot springs or fiery exhalations from the earth.
     From: report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.123
     A reaction: This seems to me to be correct. Wise people will have thought more extensively about what is possible, and when something they had never imagined occurs, they have the humility to recognise their own limitations.
Wise men participate in politics, especially if it shows moral progress [Stoic school, by Stobaeus]
     Full Idea: The wise man participates in political life, especially in the sort of governments which show some moral progress.
     From: report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 2.11b
     A reaction: Nowadays this would probably involve belonging to a political party which offered moral progress.
Unfortunately we choose a way of life before we are old enough to think clearly [Cicero]
     Full Idea: At the beginning of adolescence when our deliberative capacities are weak we decide on the way of life that we find attractive. So one gets entangled in a definite manner and pattern of life before one is able to judge which one is best.
     From: M. Tullius Cicero (On Duties ('De Officiis') [c.44 BCE], 1.117)
     A reaction: Hence it is important to have lots of means for bailing out of education courses, jobs, and even marriage. At least university postpones the key life choices till the early twenties.
A wise man has integrity, firmness of will, nobility, consistency, sobriety, patience [Cicero]
     Full Idea: The wise man does nothing of which he can repent, nothing against his will, does everything nobly, consistently, soberly, rightly, not looking forward to anything as bound to come, is not astonished at any novel occurrence, abides by his own decisions.
     From: M. Tullius Cicero (Tusculan Disputations [c.44 BCE], V.xxviii)
     A reaction: Notice that the wise man never exhibits weakness of will (an Aristotelian virtue), and is consistent (as Kant proposed), and is patient (as the Stoics proposed). But Cicero doesn't think he should busy himself maximising happiness.
Wise people escape necessity by willing it [Seneca]
     Full Idea: There is nothing a wise man does reluctantly; he escapes necessity because he wills what necessity is going to force on him.
     From: Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 054)
     A reaction: He is discussing death in this letter. The difficulty here is sliding into fatalism. For instance, if you are informed that you have cancer, it is tempting to become 'wise' and will your own death, but lots of people fight it, and win.
A wise man is not subservient to anything [Seneca]
     Full Idea: I do not call any man wise who is subservient to anything.
     From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §11)
     A reaction: At the very least, a wise man should be subservient to a wiser man.
A wise philosophers uses reason to cautiously judge each aspect of living [Epictetus]
     Full Idea: The sinews of a philosopher are desire that never fails in its achievement; aversion that never meets with what it would avoid; appropriate impulse; carefully considered purpose; and assent that is never precipitate.
     From: Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 2.08.29)
     A reaction: This is a very individual view of wisdom and the philosopher, whereas wisdom is often thought to have a social role. Is it not important for a philosopher to at least offer advice?
A philosopher should have principles ready for understanding, like a surgeon with instruments [Aurelius]
     Full Idea: As physicians have always their instruments and knives ready for cases which suddenly require their skill, so should you have principles ready for the understanding of things divine and human.
     From: Marcus Aurelius (The Meditations (To Himself) [c.170], 3.13)
     A reaction: Nice. Philosophy is the training ground where wisdom and good living are made possible, but it cannot be a substitute for living.
Wise people should contemplate and discuss the truth, and fight against falsehood [Aquinas]
     Full Idea: The role of the wise person is to meditate on the truth, especially the truth regarding the first principle, and to discuss it with others, but also to fight against the falsity that is its contrary.
     From: Thomas Aquinas (Summa Contra Gentiles [1268], I.1.6), quoted by Kretzmann/Stump - Aquinas, Thomas 14
     A reaction: So nice to hear someone (from no matter how long ago) saying that wisdom is concerned with truth. If you lose your grip on truth (which many thinkers seem to have done) you must also abandon wisdom. Then fools rule.
Why can't a wise man doubt everything? [Montaigne]
     Full Idea: Why cannot a wise man dare to doubt anything and everything?
     From: Michel de Montaigne (Apology for Raymond Sebond [1580], p.0562)
     A reaction: This question seems to be the start of the Enlightenment Project, of attempting to prove everything. MacIntyre warns of the dangers of this in ethical theory. The story of modern philosophy is the discovery of its impossibility. E.g. Davidson on truth.
To try to be wise all on one's own is folly [Rochefoucauld]
     Full Idea: To try to be wise all on one's own is sheer folly.
     From: La Rochefoucauld (Maxims [1663], 231)
     A reaction: I agree strongly with this. There are counter-examples, of whom Spinoza may be the greatest, and Nietzsche thought that philosophy was essentially a solitary business, but most of us are not Spinoza or Nietzsche.
Wise people have fewer acts of will, because such acts are linked together [Leibniz]
     Full Idea: The wiser one is, the fewer separate acts of will one has and the more one's views and acts of will are comprehensive and linked together.
     From: Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Antoine Arnauld [1686], 1686.04.12)
     A reaction: [letter to Landgrave, about Arnauld] It is unusual to find a philosopher who actually tries to analyse the nature of wisdom, instead of just paying lipservice to it. I take Leibniz to be entirely right here. He equates wisdom with rational behaviour.
Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: One ought not to use one's wisdom to become clever!
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 308)
     A reaction: And I would add 'don't think that being clever makes you wise'. Nietzsche, as always, is subtler than me (which is why I read him a lot). Presumably wisdom is broad, and cleverness is focused. Will becoming clever spoil someone's wisdom?
Unlike science, true wisdom involves good taste [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Inherent in wisdom [sophia] is discrimination, the possession of good taste: whereas science, lacking such a refined sense of taste, gobbles up anything that is worth knowing.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Writings 1872-74 [1873], 19 [086])
     A reaction: This is blatantly unfair to science, which may lack 'taste', but at least prefers deep theories with wide-ranging explanatory power to narrow local theories. Maybe the line across the philosophical community is the one picking out those with taste?
The wisest man is full of contradictions, and attuned to other people, with occasional harmony [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The wisest man would be the one richest in contradictions, who has, as it were, antennae for all types of men - as well as his great moments of grand harmony - a rare accident even in us!
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §259)
     A reaction: By 'us' does he mean himself? Whether the rest of us thought such a person to be wise would depend on whether we met them on a contradictory or a harmonious day. Permanent harmony should be viewed with suspicion.
While faith is a passion (as Kierkegaard says), wisdom is passionless [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: Wisdom is passionless. But faith by contrast is what Kierkegaard calls a passion.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Culture and Value [1945], 53e)
     A reaction: [Idea from SY] Personally I don't agree that wisdom is passionless. At the very least, Aristotle allows the wise person to be appropriately angry. [PG]
If you hope to improve the world, all you can do is improve yourself [Wittgenstein]
     Full Idea: When Wittgenstein was once asked what one can do to improve the world, he replied: 'Improve yourself; that is the only thing you can do to improve the world'.
     From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (talk [1935]), quoted by Ray Monk - Bertrand Russell: Ghost of Madness Ch.1
     A reaction: This is rather startlingly pessimistic about politics, and I don't really believe it. If anything has ever improved me, it has usually come from the world, and been created by other people.
Wisdom is open to all, and not just to the clever or well trained [Foot]
     Full Idea: Knowledge that can be acquired only by someone who is clever or who has access to special training is not counted as part of wisdom.
     From: Philippa Foot (Virtues and Vices [1978], p.6)
     A reaction: Consider Pierre's peasant friend Platon Karatayev in 'War and Peace'. I assume 'special training' rules out anyone with a philosophy degree.
Wisdom is the property of a person, not of their cognitive state [Zagzebski, by Whitcomb]
     Full Idea: Zagzebski takes wisdom as literally properties of persons, not persons' cognitive states.
     From: report of Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski (Virtues of the Mind [1996], p.59-60) by Dennis Whitcomb - Wisdom 'Twofold'
     A reaction: Not sure about this. Zagzebski uses this idea to endorse epistemic virtue. But knowledge and ignorance are properties of persons too. There can be, though, a precise mental state involved in knowledge, but not in wisdom.
The best philosophers I know are the best people I know [Heil]
     Full Idea: Philosophers are not invariably the best people, but the best philosophers I know are the best people I know.
     From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], Pref)
     A reaction: How very nicely expressed. I have often thought the same about lovers of literature, but been horribly disappointed by some of them. On the whole I have found philosophy-lovers to be slightly superior to literature-lovers!
Tell cleverness from answers, but wisdom from questions [Mahfouz]
     Full Idea: You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
     From: Naguib Mahfouz (works [1998])
     A reaction: [Popped up on Twitter. I am adjusting to the 21st century] The observation is simplistic, of course, but very nice indeed.