Philosophy
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- pinkfloyd
I'm taking a night class on philosophy, so i'll be sharing some quesetions in this thread.
Last week we learned that wisdom is innate. Can someone explain this to me?
- utopian0
Without any studying, understanding, external guidance, and or taught knowledge...wisdom that comes from within.
- utopian1
"Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge."
Plato
- pinkfloyd-1
Where does it come from? Is it like instincts?
- experience and memory i suppose.pango
- experience and memory is the opposite of innate pango lolpinkfloyd
- Thx I disagree with that statement. Babies got no wisdom. Babies are dumb.pango
- Thx = thenpango
- innate as in not a conscious effort as appose to innate as in natural state vs learned, so yea, you right pango********
- which is a testament to the difference between intelligence which is the kind if innate that pinkfloyd means vs wisdom which is what pango's dumb ass is talkin********
- talking about ironically enough********
- :D hey look. the dumb person who has anger management just showed up. for some reason he follows me around and wouldn't get off my dick.pango
- using your own logic, I guess you don't have much wisdom then.pango
- Things that make you go hmmmmmmmonospaced
- Wow pango, you sound really upset. You should get some proffesional help with that temper of yours********
- lol those were my words. And I said that to you. And seem like you never got help. Talking about irony. You're the one upset here.pango
- utopian0
More or less...your life experiences. Some claim that it is built into your DNA.
- pinkfloyd-1
Life experience isn't really innate I think. Being built in the DNA falls more along the lines of my question.
- hotroddy0
on a darwinian level -
if learning from your mistakes makes wisdom. than making mistakes is innate. because everyone makes mistakes. so whatever doesn't kill you makes you wiser?wisdom is inevitable as you navigate through life.
- *and if making mistakes is innevitable than wisdom is innatehotroddy
- life experience is what gleans wisdom, people go through varying amounts of adversity so wisdom's inevitability is relative and therefor not inevitable really********
- there may be varying degrees of wisdom but wisdom none the lesshotroddy
- making mistakes doesn't nesecellery equate to learning a lesson or gaining insight or wisdom, not really inevitable********
- and only innate in a very specific context of the word's usage********
- inteliboy0
Best Answer: Gandalf is a Maia, and he was sent as one of the five Istari by the Valar to Middle-Earth. In Valinor he was known as Olórin. His task was to help the people of Middle Earth to appose Sauron.
As for him being a positive force, he was 'the wisest of the Maia' and a student of Nienna.
- pango1
Wisdom implies experience. You can not genetically transfer experience to others.
- we now know that your dna changes over the course of your life so in a way it does transfer, i know what you mean though********
- Changes and transfer are different things. but if like other people said. experience is is unenviable, then maybe the statement works.pango
- however if an extreme scenario applied to it. locked up in a darkroom with no interaction or random factor in daily routine. wisdom can't be gained.pango
- what? if you reproduce after your dna is changed due to outside stimuli than that change is transferred. you art school kids are in a allegorical darkroom and********
- yet you still wind up with a relative degree of wisdom, emphasis on relative********
- *an********
- speaking of plato and allegories. . .********
- memories can be passed down genetically. with them experience comes with.********
- Shit really? Memory can be passed down? Not instinct instead?pango
- instinct has to be stored somewhere in memory.********
- i never heard anything about memory in genetics. however experiences can affect your epigenetics and that of your children and grandchildren vvvsarahfailin
- http://www.scientifi…sarahfailin
- Interesting.pango
- we now know that your dna changes over the course of your life so in a way it does transfer, i know what you mean though
- pinkfloyd-1
Innate - existing in one from birth; inborn; native
Transferring through DNA or what, seems to be the most valid argument so far. I think it may fall along the lines with instinct as well like how we're innately afraid of snakes which are poisonous. Something that's been developed over time. Another idea would be that we also have souls that carry the innate wisdom.
- pinkfloyd-1
Has anyone experienced innate wisdom in their life? Something deep within you knew what was better? Any examples?
- How can one decipher whether wisdom is innate or acquired? I'm not sure if one could definitively say. That "something deep" could be based societal morality.wagshaft
- i wish yurimon was here. i'm pretty sure he experienced innate wisdom every day.sarahfailin
- breathing********
- sarahfailin0
I don't think it's a predominant western idea that wisdom is innate. Socrates spurred people to examine their lives to gain wisdom, questioning everything.
Eastern philosophies seem to see wisdom as innate-- like being born a buddha or bodisatva, where your soul is in the cycle of samsara, tao te ching says 'the sage knows without traveling.'
If you believe in 'old souls' you might believe wisdom is innate. Or if you think some people are naturally smarter than others-- but then there is probably a distinction to be made between 'wisdom' and 'intelligence'.
- then again, buddhas generally have to earn their wisdom too, but many seem to be born with a head startsarahfailin
- sarahfailin0
I think a lot of philosophers would distinguish 'wisdom' from knowledge or intelligence. Wisdom isn't knowing how to bake a perfect cake, or how to take apart a car engine, or how to calculate multivariable derivitives in your head. A snake knows very well how to silently stalk its prey, instinctively, but that is not wisdom, because it is only the snake fulfilling the essence of being a snake.
Wisdom, on the other hand, seems to be transcendent knowledge-- an awareness of a deeper or different level of existence. For Plato and Socrates this was the realm of the ideal. For Buddha it's an awakening to enlightenment.
There's a kind of truth that can't be conveyed directly with words. If this truth is attainable, then that is wisdom. If it is not attainable, then maybe pursuing it is wisdom. Philosophy is the beginning of individual human life.
- sarahfailin0
Chiyono studied Zen for many years under Bukko of Engaku. Still, she could not attain the fruits of meditation. At last one moonlit night she was carrying water in an old wooden pail girded with bamboo. The bamboo broke, and the bottom fell out of the pail. At that moment, she was set free. Chiyono said, "No more water in the pail, no more moon in the water."
- monoboy0
If it's innate, then wisdom is a form of animal instinct.
There are some animal behaviours that baffle scientist. Like altruism.
- uan0
I think it's innate as you can't provoke it in every person.
wisdom is an exceptional form of theoretical knowledge about god, the world and existence. this form of knowledge exceeds to understand something or to like something, but understands the different aspects of the details and the whole matter to each other and can see the bigger picture.
- pinkfloyd-1
Another question. Is it better to let things slide or taste the sweetness of revenge? If you were wronged, is it better to suffer while maintaining a virtuous moral or is it better to do a wrong back?
- Morning_star-3
Treat others as you would wish to be treated.
Revenge will lead to further revenge, it's cyclical and essentially worthless persuit.
- ********2
Wisdom is not innate.
- I guess it's semantics. Maybe a certain wisdom is innate.********
- Plato believed that all knowledge is innate and we just reveal it to ourselves through study and experience (I think).fadein11
- That means literally nothing, though. Whether we're all sparks of god and know everything and have to 'reveal' it to ourselves or..********
- or Socrates or one of those old guys.fadein11
- whether we're just mechanical beings that have to 'learn' it. It's ultimately exactly the same thing.********
- In relation to whether it's innate or not, I mean. You still have to discover it.********
- You could argue that a feral child with no knowledge or anything could still be wise though. It's an interesting debate, for sure.********
- knowledge of anything*********
- yep wisdom and knowledge v.different.fadein11
- Well that's obvious but is wisdom innate? I guess it is. Babies are all retards but some babies are predisposed to become wise people, and some not.********
- I guess it's semantics. Maybe a certain wisdom is innate.
