Comments on: Manvotional: The Cardinal Virtues — Wisdom

By: David Thompson

David Thompson — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:46:46 +0000

Great article. I’ve studied OT and Biblical sources on the division of “knowledge”, “wisdom” and “understanding”. From what I’ve gathered, knowledge is something we know (either by sense-knowledge learning (e.g. Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling), or by spiritual revelation (s.v. God said to___ in a vision; or false revelation s.v. Witch of Endor): wisdom being the right application of knowledge; and understanding bring an experienced “scope”…whereby we see thebig picture. How i process it anyway.

The Greek words for “to know” are illuminating. Oida is to know by learning our without reference to how, while ginosko denotes learning by effort and experience. The difference between studying farming and being a farmer. Dr. Ethelbert W. Bullinger has a very eliminating work- The Companion Bible-and the appendices in the back will as both knowledge, wisdom and learning.

Happy hunting everyone!

By: Larry Hill

Larry Hill — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 21:34:00 +0000

Amazed at the high quality of the comments on this short article on wisdom. Good group interacting. Often not the norm on internet.

By: Shemsi

Shemsi — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:20:11 +0000

Very nice article and truly keeps one thinking how much we can still grow as gentlemen in every aspect of life.

By: Ralmon

Ralmon — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:35:10 +0000

Wahh! The discussion of Wisdom is quite mind boggling. I had a personal idea of what Wisdom is, but after reading other people’s idea of wisdom, I kinda have to review mine a bit. I’ve also searched for words that is synonymous or similar to wisdom and I found out lots of it!:

Foresight, cunning, prudence, curiosity, creativity, open mindedness, understanding, knowledge, love of learning, experience, insight, shrewdness, reasoning, caution, circumspection, good judgment, good counsel, thinking, enlightenment, … and maybe many others that had to be discovered.

I need to understand more what wisdom is and what defines it because I’m all confused right now. I also have known the original four cardinal virtues and I know it is prudence not wisdom that was listed and I wonder what is the difference between the two (or maybe they are the same).

Great manvotional but it just given me confusion. At least it put wisdom to the limelight.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:47:19 +0000

@Nik,
“Wisdom is action based knowledge that is rooted in humility.” I think you’ve hit something significant there. and worded it well. Although wisdom itself isn’t an action, one isn’t really wise if he knows the right thing and does nothing about it. Well-put.

The more I think about a definition of wisdom, the more amazed I am at how complex a concept it is. And after that comes the challenge of getting it. I love the tribute to wisdom given by the ancient sage Job in Job 28 in the Bible. He compares man’s search for wisdom with man’s search for the unknown in exploration, mining, and technology. It is a quest as old as time.

By: Nik Rice

Nik Rice — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:55:22 +0000

@Brian,
I should have clarified. Ignorance and pride are the source of all tragic events in life.
Either you knew what to do or you didn’t and it resulted in regret/loss.
Wisdom is action based knowledge that is rooted in humility.

This is fun.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:11:51 +0000

@Nik, Do you think that the proud and ignorant can truly be said to be wise? (Pride used in the negative sense here)

By: Nik Rice

Nik Rice — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:29:41 +0000

@ Brian,

I would still wonder if “ability to forgive” is still knowledge. Everyone can forgive; it’s a non-physical task. Therefore, it comes down to pride and ignorance. Ignorance being knowledge based.

By: JMC

JMC — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:05:58 +0000

The problem, I think, with some of the issues here when comparing this with Greek philosophy is that this virtue is traditionally rendered “prudence,” not wisdom. Using the correct (and classical) wording would help us who are trying to balance different “types” of knowledge.

By: Kent

Kent — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:39:15 +0000

@Magnate Frank, actually, to be wise is to learn from your own experience. HOWEVER, and perhaps most importantly, wisdom is having the capability of learning from those who have already been there themselves. This is why school is always a wise choice. An aspiring engineer can surely discover all the rules of mechanics on his own, and it would take him years. A wise aspiring engineer would go to school and learn from the wisdom (experience) that has been built by all of his predecessors.