Wisdom  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Hands of God and Adam (1500s) is a detail of the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo. It is a detail from Adam and Eve cycle

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his Timaeus and points his index finger to the heavens, representing his belief in The Forms

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Wisdom has, in the Western tradition, been listed as one of four cardinal virtues. As a virtue it is a habit or disposition to perform the action with the highest degree of adequacy under any given circumstance. This implies a possession or seeking of knowledge of the given circumstances. This involves an understanding of people, things, events and situations, and the willingness and the ability to apply perceptions, judgments and actions in keeping with an understanding of what is the right course of actions. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions (the "passions") so that universal principles, values, reason and knowledge prevail to determine one's actions. In short, wisdom is a disposition to find the truth coupled with an optimum judgement as to right actions. Synonyms include: prudence, sagacity, discernment, or insight.

See also

• Analogy
• Bildung
• Book of Wisdom
• Consciousness
• Human condition
• Intelligence
• Knowledge
• Metacognition
• Perspicacity
• Philosophy
• Prudence
• Sapere aude
• Sapiens (disambiguation)
• School of Hard Knocks
• Self-awareness
• Sentience
• Sophia
• The Wisdom of Crowds
• Virtue
• Wisdom in Buddhism
• Wisdom literature
• Wise fool