tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045470200571732417.post3030482922038498633..comments2023-09-30T06:42:31.235-07:00Comments on Advocatus Atheist: For the Love of SophiaTristan Vickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05348780254008374268noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045470200571732417.post-85805163658033732152010-02-20T17:46:12.172-08:002010-02-20T17:46:12.172-08:00Sandra-
I think Dan quoted keenly from Plato: He ...Sandra-<br /><br />I think Dan quoted keenly from Plato: He is wise who like Socrates does not presume to have knowledge.<br /><br />To me the religious claim is just that, to have God's knowledge. That's the claim anyway. But such a claim should be testable, because then God's people would be smarter and wiser than anyone else. This doesn't seem to be the case.<br /><br />As to your definition, I think you are implying that wisdom comes from experience. This is part of it. But religious people often state their spiritual experiences also comes from God, and what's more, state that many of their life experiences were predestined and that God has things happen in just such a way as to help them.<br /><br />This is the excuse you get when an innocent child dies of cancer. God is still all loving, but it was the child's time, God knows better, or he wants you to learn something in the deep suffering, a small evil for a greater good, the excuses of theodicy are limitless when you try to turn experience into divine wisdom.<br /><br />From the standpoint of a humanist though, I agree wisdom is enhanced by life experience, but what is life experience? It's the accrual of knowledge about the everyday world around us. Therefore, it's related to the other form of knowledge, the kind Plato spoke about, the knowledge of the sages.<br /><br />David Hume reminds us that: In our reasoning concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.<br /><br />But Hume also cautions us: Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors.<br /><br />And this is why I entitled it 'For the Love of Sophia.' It's simply not enough to have the experience, one has to make sense of the experience, but be aware that experiences too can be misleading. Therefore, I agree with Hume that a wise man bases his beliefs proportionately with the available evidence. Socrates wisdom is more of a form of etiquette for those who become wise, because only then do you realize there is more to know and that you know so little it wouldn't be worth bragging about--this is wisdom tempered by experience.<br /><br />I hope that clears up anything that might not have made perfect sense.Tristan Vickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05348780254008374268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045470200571732417.post-58719852250542935462010-02-20T08:31:42.754-08:002010-02-20T08:31:42.754-08:00About Wisdom::
I am not sure I understand which de...About Wisdom::<br />I am not sure I understand which definition of the concept of wisdom you are using here. But if I can go out on an edge and give you my definition: <br />Tactical[Artful handling of affairs] ability in a social environment consisting of and or having been learned from, experience and other kinds of information. <br />Then I'd say your comments and view are right on the money concerning litterature. However it is assuming that written information is the only or most important handshake between the human mind and information. In this I do not agree. It would mean, that before the first written word, there never existed a wise man or wisdom for humans to progress and navigate from.<br />The brain is an organic example of extreme and well developed 'mirroring, back-up, and diversifying'. The two halves of the brain virtually each able to run the whole body and mind one their own as hemispherectomy have proven dating from 1928. Other signs of diversified intelligence strategy for the human animal would be the many sensory systems we use for bringing information to us. One one of these are the eyes. If we assume that what we are calling wisdom has a main part in our survival as an animal, then we must consider the possibility that the stuff it is made of can be acquired through other receptors. <br /><br />About the assumtion that the bible is considered to be 100% wisdom::<br />I have never seen the bible that way. Jesus said, 'knock and the door will be opened' or 'For he who has ears to hear'. That is to say, that the word in its self is just information. It is not transformed into the word of God unless the reader 'believes' it is the word of God. Secondly, their is an awful lot of information in the Bible which i can not think any one Christian or not would refer to as wisdom per se. The lengthy 'family trees' would be one example.<br />On the other hand and I would like to take a stand for this: The bible has a much larger role to play than versus of wisdom, chronological family lines, journals of the jewish culture. It is an icon of faith. The belief in the book has nothing really to do with the content. The content is for the believer holy. I have been taught by Christians that wisdom is gained in daily life. A good life is gained by studying the guidlines in the Bible and following them. Salvation is gained simply by believing.<br /><br />Therefor I think the better title for this blogg would be: Can you become wise from reading the Bible.Sandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14242208628396611803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045470200571732417.post-48663553393304386742010-02-19T23:38:56.018-08:002010-02-19T23:38:56.018-08:00I like it. The suggestions are feasible and specif...I like it. The suggestions are feasible and specific. Even conservative people should be able to broaden their reading a little bit, and then always a little bit more. A slippery slope? Well, I'll just say, I've always found that following the references of a favorite book will quickly bring you to some strange places... unless it's a book whose references are so meager, like the Bible, that there is seldom anything to follow up on, even less that is extant. But almost everyone has a few books in their library.<br />I'm reminded of a couple quotes from some ancients. One of them is from Plato, actually, from the oracle of Delphi: He is wise who like Socrates does not presume to have knowledge. Always a favorite. And there's the couplets by Pope:<br />A little learning is a dangerous thing,<br />Therefore drink deep of the Pyrian spring<br />Where shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,<br />And drinking largely sobers us again.<br />I am really attracted to the optimism you share in this piece. But of course, I'm searching for an antithesis, and I even already think I've come up with something interesting. You may have encountered ideas in evolution relating the importance of genetic diversity within a population? Well, I'm thinking about intellectual diversity.... I hesitate because, of course, you are suggesting something that undoubtedly promotes this kind of diversity, and I'm about to suggest it endangers it. But maybe, if you will consider this idea, there is something workable here. I am going to suggest that reading breadth may cause intellectual homogenization. For one thing, the exposure to ideas superficially by reading and reading some more will promote a culture of referencing as opposed to one of development. I think it is a familiar idea that creativity to develop something original is promoted by deep familiarization, and upon attainment of greater maturity, the creator takes into account more xenotypic ideas.<br />This is a growing idea. I'm sorry it's not organized! But I felt obliged to suggest something antithetical. I really am a goat!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com