The idea of wisdom is generally based on the understanding of the why and how. Beliefs about it vary between different people and different cultures. Most of it comes from watching and learning from others as well as ones own life experiences. In order to make appropriate choices, one must look at perceptions and knowledge about people, things, and life itself.
It was seen as one of the virtues by ancient Greeks. It was seen along the same lines as insight. Wise decisions came from analyzing the facts of what they know rather than go on emotion. It was important to know the difference between being rational and being emotional. Choices made by way of emotion were not considered to be smart. Instead, they would cloud rational thinking.
Sometimes situations arise and all the facts needed to make a wise decision are available. A smart person would be able to take the facts at hand, how little there may be, and come up with a solution. Aristotle thought that understanding why and how things exist was helpful in these situations. It was like putting a puzzle together.
Freethinkers, on the other hand, believed that intuition played a large part in the development of this virtue. They also attributed spirituality to it as well. But like Aristotle, Freethinkers also understood that life experience and reason were the basis of it all.
Today, many people believe that it is taught for the most part. A person could be faced with a challenge and have several options to choose from as a resolution. This is done by comparing and contrasting what they have learned to experience and prior knowledge. A wise person would be able to look at all of the available choices and select the best one.
When hearing the words wise, they are often correlated to age. It is assumed that a long life means a lot of experience but that is not necessarily true in all cases. It must be taken into consideration the richness ones life and what they were exposed to. A 20 year old man could possibly experience a lot more of life than a 40 year old man and be considered the wiser of the two.
Intellect has a direct relationship to wisdom. It is a conglomeration of experience, knowledge, perception, insight, and reason. Wise decisions are usually made in situations that when faced with a challenge, choices are made for the better of a person or a situation.
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