Website owner:  James Miller

Knowledge is one thing, wisdom is another

   What is wisdom?  What is involved in the concept of wisdom?  
   How does the concept of wisdom compare with the concept of 
   knowledge in matters related to conduct and behavior?  Well, 
   knowledge is one thing, wisdom is quite another.  Knowledge 
   does not imply wisdom.  It is one thing to know what is right 
   or prudent.  It is quite another thing to do it.  The wise 
   person not only knows what is right or prudent, but also does 
   it.  He lives according to his knowledge.  A person may know a 
   certain action is bad, imprudent or wrong, yet he does it 
   anyway.  He may know that reason dictates a particular course, 
   and yet he acts against reason and does what he wishes, knowing 
   his action to be imprudent.  For one reason or another he 
   doesn't act as he knows he ought to act, doesn't do what he 
   knows he should do.  He may know that smoking is imprudent, bad 
   for one's health, yet he smokes.  He may know that he ought to 
   keep his weight down to a healthy level yet he is obese and 
   gaining.   He may know that lying is wrong, yet he lies.  He 
   may know that stealing is wrong, yet he steals.  He may know 
   that adultery is wrong, yet he does it.  Etc., etc.  This world 
   is full of people who do things they know are wrong, imprudent 
   or foolish.  What name do you give to a person who acts against 
   reason, prudence or right?  How about the name "fool"?  A 
   person who does foolish things, knowingly or not, is a fool.  
   From what we have just said it is obvious that wisdom in a 
   person implies certain character traits.  For a person to 
   habitually do what he knows he ought to do implies strength of 
   character, seriousness, resolution.  He can't, for example, be 
   lazy.  He can't allow laziness to dictate his behavior or he 
   would be doing the foolish thing all the time.  He can't be a 
   slave to base appetites, desires and impulses.   He must have 
   the strength to resist them in favor of reason, conscience, and 
   prudence.  He can't just act on wish, desire and impulse.  He 
   must follow mind and his higher nature.  The wise man is the 
   man of thought, understanding and temperance, a man of 
   principle and moral strength, a man of self-control, self-
   restraint, self-discipline;  a man who rules himself, a man of 
   reason, good sense and virtue.  The wise person is the person 
   of understanding and right, intelligent, prudent action.  
   Wisdom implies self-regulation in accordance with knowledge. 
   The Bible says:

   The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil 
   is understanding. 
                                                 Job  28:28

   Wisdom involves more than knowledge.  Wisdom involves practice. 
   We live in a nation following the ways of evil, a nation duped 
   by the lies of the Prince of Lies.  The masses have, in fact, 
   gotten so far from Truth, so separated from it, that they no 
   longer even know what it looks like.  The society doesn't know 
   right from wrong.  And it is not just the masses.  More 
   importantly it is the intelligentsia.  It is the leaders, those 
   who wield power.  There has indeed been an inversion.  The 
   righteous are condemned and the wicked are exalted.  When any 
   society sanctions any behavior as grossly wrong as 
   homosexuality and demonizes those who condemn it, that society 
   is totally lost to morality and Truth.  This is foolishness of 
   the very highest order.  And what can one expect to happen to a 
   society that embraces foolishness and rejects and condemns 
   Goodness and Truth? 


   May 2009