The Importance Of Wisdom And Knowledge

Wisdom and knowledge, fraternal twins imbued in Man since Creation, Romulus and Remus, Cain and Abel, one idolized, coveted, benevolent, and permanent; the other mundane, transitory, and potentially dangerous. A crashing wave of brine sweeps the sandy shore along, ever tumultuous: this is knowledge. Droppingly slow, stalactites and stalagmites coalesce into stony relics: this is wisdom. For wisdom is infinitely more precious than knowledge: he who knows, comprehends; he who is wise, empathizes. From Ecclesiastes, two independent propositions are set forth on wisdom and knowledge, but they are half-truths. Indeed, the miserable travails of history testify to the grievous suffering that enhanced generational wisdom, and the rigorous toil behind …show more content…
Conversely, will the employment of wisdom and knowledge, once acquired, lead to grief and sorrow in the world? Clearly wisdom will not, for wisdom is associated with virtue, a boon for the individual and society. To quote Seneca, wisdom “is a right understanding...a judgment grounded upon the value of things, and not the common opinion of them.” One remarkable example concerns the wise second president, John Adams, who resisted the callings of his own Federalist party for war with France. Adams selflessly went against the doctrine of his own party for the good of the nation, knowing full well that war with France at this early stage would hurt America’s chances of becoming a long-lasting, sovereign republic. His actions led to unpopularity with his once-ardent supporters, but Adams wisely avoided war with France, farsightedly ensuring American sovereignty and …show more content…
Based on history, knowledge has been used for both unequal material gain and for benevolent charity--used by dictators to keep the masses in a state of ignorance, by businessmen to leverage loopholes leading to greater accretion of wealth, but also by researchers in achieving the eradication of smallpox. Knowledge by itself is neutral--it does not favor its use for beneficial or detrimental purposes, but is merely a tool under which wisdom must be the guiding force. Today’s society has seen an unprecedented access to knowledge--the internet, books, radio, television, and increased physical mobility all encourage cosmopolitan global awareness. Whoever “cries havoc, and unleashes the dogs of war” may have the knowledge to weaponize against his adversaries, but not wisdom to accept the consequences. The book of Ecclesiastes is partly correct in stating that with much knowledge comes much suffering, for malicious knowledge a button’s press away from a powerful madman indeed spells disaster for