Let us take the word ‘philosophy’ itself and consider what it means, what ideas it contains. The word is derived from the Greek ‘philo’ which means to love and ‘sophia’ which means wisdom.Thus the word means ‘the love of wisdom’.
A course in practical philosophy, where the love of wisdom may be put into practice, the idea is that we do not consider philosophy just to be a matter of academic interest but of immediate practical use. The love of wisdom does not mean having one’s head in the clouds, remote from all that is going on around us. In fact it allows attention to be given more fully to all aspects of life, including the smallest details, but in a way that produces happiness rather than unhappiness.
The value of the wisdom of an armchair philosopher is confined to the armchair. Our aim here is that wisdom may shed light in a practical way on all our actions in the world. Here are four questions that we can begin to consider namely:
What is wisdom?
What does it mean to love wisdom?
Is wisdom something that can be acquired and if so, how?
What are the qualities of a wise man or woman?
What is wisdom?
The word means ‘having knowledge’ and is related to ‘wit’ which means understanding and knowledge. It can be
traced back to the ancient Sanskrit word ‘wid’ which means to know, to understand, to perceive. Thus wisdom has to do with knowledge.
A carpenter has knowledge of joinery, a sailor of sailing, an architect of the design of buildings, a doctor of healing, and so on. The list is endless. In all these cases the knowledge informs the individual of how to carry out a particular action. But the architect may be completely hopeless as a sailor, the doctor may be inept at performing the simplest
piece of carpentry. Plainly the knowledge in such cases is related only to the particular activity in question. It is not universal. Thus we may call a doctor ‘wise’ but this only relates to his or her capacity as
a doctor.
The aim here is not to be wise doctors or carpenters, but to be wise men and women. When we use the word ‘wisdom’ in this course we mean that knowledge which will enable life to be lived truly and happily. The activity that the knowledge relates to is life itself. The knowledge can enable us to master the art of living.
This then is our answer to begin with to the question ‘What is wisdom?’ It is that knowledge which will
enable life to be lived truly and happily. This applies not only to individuals but to nations and to humanity itself. This is indeed a desirable aim. No one would really like to live a life that was untrue or a sham or which is devoid of happiness.
To love wisdom means making efforts for the sake of wisdom and thereby being enriched by wisdom.
Can wisdom be acquired?
Wisdom in a sense cannot be acquired because it is innate in us but applying a question such as ‘What would a wise man or woman do here?’ can help to draw it out and to nourish it.
What are the qualities or marks of those people who we think of as being wise?
One aspect of wisdom is that it is always simple. Take the case of a master craftsman. The work always looks so easy. Nothing is out of place. No effort is wasted and the work proceeds without any hitch. This is totally different with an incompetent worker. With him there is confusion and chaos and quite often an element of deception to cover up the poor work.
The same is so with a great work of architecture. The Parthenon in Athens, for example, is a work of incredible sophistication and yet utter simplicity.
To the non-scientist the scientific world may seem to be totally incomprehensible. But to many of the great scientists the quality of simplicity is all important (Albert Einstein illustrates this very well).
Wisdom illuminates
The nature of wisdom is that it acts like light. It illuminates what is present. It does not add vast new structures of learning or erudition but rather it works to remove some of these structures. Wisdom is not about the mind. It is also a question of being; the state of one’s being. Sometimes life can seem shallow, the mind continuously darting around on the surface without much experience of real depth. This experience of depth paves the way for greater wisdom and understanding.
All of this can be summarised in a few short verses from Proverbs:
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
