Challenges to Defining Wisdom

The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Sir Edward John Poynter

To review, I have previously addressed why it is important to define wisdom and given you a description and mild critique of the most recent attempt by neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Dilip Jeste, in his book, “Wiser.”

I would like to now address some reasons why wisdom is such a difficult word to define and address what I believe are two of the primary challenges. At this point, I offer no solutions, but I will get to that, so stay tuned.

I will later give you some examples of how experts other than Dr. Jeste have defined wisdom, including such notables as Socrates.

After that I will offer my contribution and more detailed comments on what I see as incomplete, if not incorrect, about Dr. Jeste’s definition.

I’m big on checklists. What I hope to do is to ultimately develop a “wisdom checklist,” which you can use to help you enhance your personal wisdom and make wiser decisions about those dilemmas and difficult challenges we all encounter in life.

I will then cover some of the basic ancient texts of wisdom and discuss the lives of some of the more well-known sages and how they correlate to the wisdom checklist.

So Many Packages

One of the primary challenges with defining wisdom is that it comes in a multitude of different packages. One subset of wisdom consists of statements made by wise people. From these statements, sages developed wisdom systems, which evolved and were reformed over time. These systems form another subset. Add to all of that: literature, film, music, biographies, and so on. Let’s look at some examples of the many packages in which we find wisdom.

Solomon gave us his “proverbs”; Aesop used fables; Heraclitus of Ephesus, an early Greek sage, packaged his wisdom in aphorisms (“You cannot step twice into the same river.”); Socrates employed (and annoyed with) his “dialectic”; Plato used the format of dramas and “dialogues” to transmit his wisdom; Jesus spoke in sometimes cryptic parables.

Epictetus, the former slave, reformed the wisdom system begun around 300 BCE by Zeno, later known as Stoicism, discounting early attempts at metaphysics and logic and making it more pragmatic. Marcus Aurelius, arguably Rome’s wisest emperor, carried the torch of Stoicism until his death and was one of the first to use journaling to record his wisdom.

Along with his parables, Jesus reformed the wisdom system of Judaism. He  deemphasized the strict ritualistic approach of Deuteronomy and replaced the concept of a God to be feared with a loving father figure. He emphasized faith, love, prayer, forgiveness of sin, and the importance of the after-life. Paul later argued for the inclusion of gentiles, another important reform.

On the other side of the world, Confucius was packaging wisdom as “analects” (short dialogues with a disciple); Lao Tsu was teaching the world that wisdom is, more often than not, paradoxical (as did Heraclitus in saying that “the only thing constant is change”).

The Hindu yogis had a wisdom system. Buddha reformed it and developed his own system based upon 4 Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and the practices of mindfulness, compassion, and meditation.

Thus, we find wisdom packaged as fables, aphorisms, dramas, the Socratic method, analects, paradoxes, and various evolving wisdom systems, all of which attempt to convey wisdom but which rarely define the word.  

Along the way, various philosophers have ventured into these troubled waters, Harvard philosopher, Robert Nozick, for one. The psychologists have also gotten into the game, notably Robert Sternberg and Martin Seligman. I would be remiss if I did not give a nod to secular humanist wisdom, “new age” forms, and Theosophy. Distilling a definition of wisdom from all of those sources is a Herculean challenge.

Finally, there are other methods of defining wisdom, notably the Socratic approach, and a method that I have not seen but will explore at some length: studying the behavior of sages.

The Original Sin of Assumption

Another big challenge to defining wisdom is that for centuries most of us simply assumed that we knew what wisdom is. I am reminded of Justice Potter Stewart’s famous line in Jacobellis v. Ohio about hard-core pornography, stating that he could not define it, but “he knew it when he saw it.” Is wisdom like pornography in this respect? We can’t define it, but we know it when we see it? Talk about “strange bedfellows.”

As you may recall, Solomon, son of David, ascended to his throne, killed and exiled a few enemies, and made the politically astute move of marrying Pharaoh’s daughter. He then convened a meeting where he spoke to “all of Israel.” Big crowd![1]

After the meeting, Solomon went to “the high place that was at Gibeon,” where, replicating the protocol of Moses, he had the ark of the covenant brought up and placed it into a tent. He had an altar built and offered 1,000 burnt offerings. I’m not sure what they were burning (there were several types of “burnt offerings” in those days). [2] Regardless, a thousand of anything must have been quite a conflagration.

Later that night, God came to Solomon, possibly in a dream, and said, “Ask what I shall give you.”[3]

This is where things get interesting. In the Second Book of Chronicles (1, 7), Solomon says, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge …” The same story appears in 1 Kings (3, 9). In that version, however, Solomon asks for “an understanding mind.” In both versions, God gives Solomon a bonus because he has not been greedy and says that he will give him all of the material possessions he has not requested. In 1 Kings, God says that he will give Solomon a “wise and discerning mind.”[4]

The point of that history lesson is not simply to point out Biblical inconsistencies, but, instead, to show that even at that early stage of human history, those as wise as Solomon and God assumed that they knew what wisdom is. Consider if Solomon had asked God for wisdom, and God responded, “What do you mean by that?” or “How do you define wisdom?” This assumption echoes through the ages, and, I contend, is one reason why we have not spent sufficient time trying to define precisely what we mean by wisdom.

The word wisdom is mentioned 222 times in the Hebrew Bible. For the record, I find one place where it offers some form of definition. In the Book of Job (Ch 28, v. 28), it states: “Behold, fear of the Lord, that is wisdom …” Personally, I do not find that very helpful in making my daily decisions or sorting out the big questions in my life. I am convinced that wisdom is a skill, but I do not believe that fear has much, if anything, to do with it.

 Then, about 600 years later, a guy named Socrates came along. His definitions of wisdom are most interesting, but that will have to wait for another day.

[1] We have to remember that the ten tribes of Israel were unified at that time; only after Solomon died, to punish him for his sins, God split Israel into two countries: the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.

[2] See, e.g., https://www.gotquestions.org/Old-Testament-sacrifices.html.

[3] Arguably, an awkward phrase, but who am I to criticize God’s grammar?

[4] I question whether Solomon was really that wise. He could be characterized as an oppressive and greedy ruler. Regardless, he did not show wisdom by marrying all of those foreign wives and worshiping their Gods, which is why God split Israel into two kingdoms when Solomon died.