by Georgia Stewart

Created on: October 23, 2009   Last Updated: October 31, 2009

Wisdom may come in the form of deeply etched lines around the eyes of an elderly man who has seen far too much, or it may be in the generous act of a wide eyed innocent child holding a friend's hand when they're crying. Often wisdom doesn't know itself, it simply is. Everyone is wise sometimes without even thinking about it.

The 'Oxford Dictionary for Students' describes wisdom as: 'the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement...the body of knowledge and experience that develops within a particular society or period, for example oriental wisdom.'

I partially agree with that statement and yet I disagree with two thirds of it because I assume that wisdom can be present in a person without much experience or knowledge. In his book 'Philosophy for Beginners' Richard Osborne quotes 'In Greek, philosophy means the 'love of wisdom' which seems like a reasonable definition, but doesn't get us very far, since there have been very sharp disagreements about 'wisdom' throughout history'.

Therefore I'm in good historical company when I make my stand and challenge the Oxford dictionary's assumption about wisdom: In my opinion young people can be extremely wise without experience. The dictionary perceives wisdom in an academic light, as in solely to do with acquired knowledge, whereas I choose to see it in as a personal choice or character trait that can be honed through experience of life.

Certain people seem to be born with the ability to be wise and make good judgements about situations that they haven't yet been through. Therefore perhaps wisdom can be innate, in other words as much a part of us as traits such as creativity in music and art or the ability to be talented at physical sports or academic subjects. Two children can make utterly different decisions when faced with similar situations. One child might choose to be intelligent and wise about it while the other decides to be selfish, foolish or destructive.

I assume that wisdom is available to everyone, and is a choice, regardless of age or experience but what is it? To answer the question I must examine the outcome of wisdom. Wise decisions result in a positive result; or some good comes out of them because the quality of wisdom is that it's the opposite to being foolish or negative and it arises from good judgement (I agree with the dictionary about wisdom being good judgement).

What are positive results? Generally positive results are those that benefit someone, creatures or the environment

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>