Essay · 1 min read
The various components of wisdom as a practical capacity to make good choices and act on them
Wisdom is a practical capacity to choose a good path — and act on that choice.
There’s personal wisdom and collective wisdom. Personal wisdom is in choosing for one’s own life — or that of other individuals (at their request 😉).
Collective wisdom is the ability of a group to act wisely: to make wise choices for the group and to act on them. For example, choosing as a planetary civilization to cut green house gas emissions and doing it.
Let’s focus on the choosing for now — it is the key thing we think of when we think of wisdom. Take this clip from Gandhi for example.
Choosing has two components which need to be integrated to find a good (wise) path forward.
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Sensing the good — or more accurately the ‘Good’ with a capital G.
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Sensing the truth — knowing what is so in the world.
We’ll talk more about these in an upcoming post.
References
First published in the Second Renaissance newsletter on 2 October 2024. Read the original.
