Ideas from 'On Wisdom' by Gottfried Leibniz [1693], by Theme Structure

[found in 'Leibniz Selections' by Leibniz,Gottfried (ed/tr Wiener,Philip P.) [Scribners 1951,]].

green numbers give full details    |     back to texts     |     unexpand these ideas


1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 1. Nature of Wisdom
Wisdom is knowing all of the sciences, and their application
                        Full Idea: Wisdom is a perfect knowledge of the principles of all the sciences and of the art of applying them.
                        From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Wisdom [1693], 0)
                        A reaction: 'Sciences' should be understood fairly broadly here (e.g. of architecture, agriculture, grammar). This is a scholar's vision of wisdom, very different from the notion of the wisest person in a village full of illiterate people.
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 1. Knowledge
Perfect knowledge implies complete explanations and perfect prediction
                        Full Idea: The mark of perfect knowledge is that nothing appears in the thing under consideration which cannot be accounted for, and that nothing is encountered whose occurrence cannot be predicted in advance.
                        From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Wisdom [1693], 1)
                        A reaction: I would track both of these back to the concept of perfect understanding, which is admittedly a bit vague. Does a finite mind need to predict every speck of dust to have perfect knowledge? Do we have perfect knowledge of triangles?