Will you give your thoughts on this quote?

Question

"Today we have more knowledge and less wisdom than ever before in history."

Answer 1

I agree. The ability to toss factoids around like a game show contestant is highly valued.

But our present culture hates and fears wisdom and those who pursue it. It's seen as geeky, weird, defiant, sexless (in a monastic sense) and inscrutable.

Answer 2

I understand what this person is saying, and I can see why he(she?) might think that way. But I don't entirely agree. He's probably looking at knowledge simply as information, and we certainly have a surfeit of that around now. By wisdom he probably means the ability to use knowledge in constructive ways. Wisdom uses knowledge to do good. That's one way of looking at it. I just don't agree that we have less wisdom than ever before in history. The problem is that you have to wade through a sea of useless information and ignorance to get at the wisdom, but there is more of it available than ever before. If you can ignore the senseless chatter, the wisdom is there to be had. That's my take on it.

Answer 3

Yes that is true as a whole. It reminds me of the phrase in a proverb " The more I know, the sadder I become."
I always wondered about that until I gained wisdom and then I know and it did make me sad. The fact that we cannot change what is or what will be, as in destiny. Wisdom is not something you learn it grows in you. It is the difference between being an Oak (wise), or a weeping willow tree, limp and not too stable. It seems to me to be wise is stablity and responsible, with logic at hand and yet the knowledge of the facts common sense tells you that you still cannot change those things that you wish to either passed present or future. Like the scientists that try to make a time machine? What good is it? We cant take everyone that we want to take, so that is not wise. We cannot change history.

Answer 4

There are two ways to answer this question:

1) [As an eccentric & slightly narcissistic philosophy instructor] --While it's difficult to answer this question accurately since neither knowledge nor wisdom can be completely quantified, especially for any other point in history, it does allude to the current fascination with knowledge (and facts) rather than wisdom. (Socrates may argue this question that we have more knowledge than wisdom than ever before in this century than in his time...)

Wisdom is a kind of knowledge and understanding developed through experience, observation and reflection. Knowledge is something to be gained by gathering facts, information, and trivia. Our schools are focused on training students to take tests, collect information, and how to consume. As the pace of life speeds up, so does the need to gain more information faster. Knowledge becomes another commodity to obtain.

Knowledge is also a form of belief. Since we cannot be completely confident that what we perceive through our senses is real, at a certain level we have to take on faith that what we perceive is real, at least real enough. Sometimes, people believe something so strongly, that they consider it truth. This fits in the catagory of "mere belief"--belief that has as it's only support the conviction of the believer. Furthermore, if these individuals encounter something that contradicts, disputes, or refutes their belief(s), they generally dismiss and/or ignore it (if not attack it as evil). Then it becomes "Willed Ignorance". And so on...

2) [Honest man (or woman)] -- I cannot answer this question fully as it would require me to know what wisdom is. It takes a wise person to know what wisdom is, and since I am not, I would basically be making things up and repeating the thoughts of others.

Answer 5

Interesting. Probably true. One can have a great deal of knowledge & still not be wise. With the technology available today, we have greater access to knowledge than ever but wisdom is something that comes from experience. The more we depend on technology, the less hands-on, character-building experience we accumulate.

Answer 6

I think that is just an egotistical thought. We may have a lot more information than ever but that doesn't equally translate into knowledge. There is a lot more to be ignorant about with every passing second. Wisdom does not depend on amounts of information and is only subjective. I may not be getting wiser as I age, I just might become more ignorant about a lot more things that I didn't know about.

Answer 7

Knowledge , collected over a long peroid of time, from the prehistoric days , emerges as wisdom. There is no corelation between the explosion of knowledge and the increase in wisdom.
Wisdom advocated long before the explosion of knowledge still holds good.

Answer 8

This is probably true. Knowledge is knowing something, but wisdom is understanding it. Information is only useful if someone has the ability to use it wisely.

Answer 9

I agree with it totally.

To me, knowledge is a collection of information. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge constructively.

We're a little short on wisdom.

Answer 10

i agree with it
with all the advanced technology we have today, we require more knowledge to not only understand these technologies but even more to build better ones.
We are losing wisdom because wisdom comes with old age and i believe that back in the days kids would have spent more time with old ppl learning their "wisdom"...nowadays we just put old ppl in a retirement home and surf the internet all day.