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Wisdom vs Intelligence?


Iwikefactz

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  • 3 weeks later...

What is the difference between wisdom and intelligence?

 

 

 

You cannot truly know the difference until you are asked - "does this make my butt look big."

Edited by arc
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That is a Funny question, too funny. I am sure you have looked in a dictionary and read the difference. It is neat how the list of closely related synonyms interchanged with one another can slightly alter a statement. So with wisdom, which is a state of wise, in which the definitions are going to revolve around solid judgment, compared with intelligence, which will revolve around capacity, there lists this stuff: A person with wisdom could be said to have acumen, caution, experience, foresight, intelligence, judgment, knowledge, poise, prudence, sanity, savvy, sophistication, understanding, astuteness, balance, brains, circumspection, comprehension, discernment, discrimination, enlightenment, rudition, gumption, information, judiciousness, learning, penetration, perspicacity, practicality, reasons, sagacity, sapience, shrewdness, solidity, stability, clear thinking, good judgment, horse sense, pansophy, sageness, savoir faire, and what not.

 

We could bust out intelligence similarly; but how about smart and smart ass? Fun post Iwikefactz!

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  • 3 weeks later...

We can all be intelligent but not all of us can be wise and most still have a fair way to go.

 

You don't need intelligence to be wise, and you don't need to be wise to be intelligent. Intelligence is like an instinct, an ability to learn the ability to want to seek to learn more. Wisdom is like quantum physics we don't instinctively know it but experience can bring around wisdom.

 

Sun Tzu was wise, Niccolo Machiavelli was intelligent

 

Einstein could be said to be both.

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intelligence is within the realm of the more recent human mammalian brain, but there is emotional intelligence with all mammals, and spiritual intelligence with the reptilian brain and brain stem...in humans, wisdom is using all 3 brains as a triangulation to find the "truest" answer to a question..as a deeper analysis of the question is capable....

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hoola,

 

I like the triangulation idea.

 

In determining the truth you can do it one way, and be right/correct/smart/capable, do it more than one way and you are intelligent and the thing is more true and workable and valuable as it becomes applicable to more than one area or you "kill two birds with one stone".

 

The triangulation you speak of is that next step up where the thing is true and known in more than one way and you use this knowledge in yet another way, this third way, the proper application of the triangulation provides the kind of thing one could call wisdom. Perhaps upon triangulation you find reason not to throw the stone.

 

Regards, TAR

Hoola,

 

Your idea also goes nicely with an old YMCA idea an uncle of mine often promoted. That of stregthening the mind, the body and the spirit of young men. He, my uncle was instrumental in establishing many YMCA camps in the PA,NJ,NY area back in the 50s and 60s. Perhaps he was wise to do such a thing.

 

Regards, TAR

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yes, many time the un-intelligent thing is to act according to intellectual facts only, take the Iraq war for example....the "facts" were played out to meet the needs of the intellect of a few intelligent, but unwise men and women...with exceptionly weak emotional brains ( he tried to kill my daddy )..(torture is not torture)...(WMD)...and apparently a near zero spiritual IQ...(look at the recent interviews of Donald Rumsfeld) The wise decision was G, H. W. Bush's administration to not invade in '91, as the world, and especially Iraq were better off not invading, with even a high level of actual provocation....Saddam's imvasion of a neighboring country. The intellect in very intelligent people tends to almost be a handicap to them, if they don't have the emotional or spiritual maturity to refrain from allowing the intellect from "leading them around by the nose". I know several individuals in my personal life like this.....these sorts seem to be everywhere.... in positions of power...they are fools. Literally, they are "fooled" by their own intellect.

yes, tar, the YMCA is (or was) a good idea...I don't see them around, I guess they are still in some cities. I saw a YWCA the other day...I think in Pueblo, colorado, where I have just moved close to...I remember staying in one and it was $6 per night.....I think maybe they are under pressure from homeless people who have mental illness, drug/alcohol problems....of course, if we hadn't shipped so many blue collar jobs to china, we wouldn't have the homeless sub-class becoming such a real problem...but it was the "intelligent" thing to do, as that increased profits for the large corporations.

Edited by hoola
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What is the difference between wisdom and intelligence?

 

I think a summary of what everyone has said is "Intelligence is the ability to hold information within memory or some other storage device while wisdom is the ability to use that information efficiently to carry out tasks that are either simple or complex."

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Their definitions are so vague I think it'd be cool if there was some way of making replacement words with really well defined meanings to become official, lol.

If I could chose, I'd make em this:


knolligence - measure of how knowledgeable somebody is (for example, barack obama is more knolligent than a young teenager from a rough neighborhood)

thoughtance - measure of the complexity of somebody's mind (for example, a human is more thoughtant than a monkey because it can comprehend say, mathematics)

applicance - measure of the ability of the mind to use existing knowledge/logic for things (for example, a geneticist who is nearing a cure for cancer is more applicant than say a historian who learns purely for interest sake (no offense lol))

predictance - measure of the ability of the mind to use knowledge/logic/prior-experience to make predictions (for example, a mother who sees her child hanging around with a bad crowd would be predictant to warn him of peer pressure)


tbh I dunno how you couldn't survive using these 4 words in some discussion, and I think It'd make articulating the specific type of 'intelligence' a lot easier than actually using intelligence and wisdom as your .. adjectives.

Edited by `hýsøŕ
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I think a summary of what everyone has said is "Intelligence is the ability to hold information within memory or some other storage device while wisdom is the ability to use that information efficiently to carry out tasks that are either simple or complex."

Actually... I think those are kind of flipped. I think intelligence is more closely tied to a sort of mental flexibility, problem-solving ability and tendency to rapidly make associations, whereas wisdom is largely about knowing things.

 

Being able to work with complex math is a mark of intelligence but not necessarily wisdom. Knowing not to touch a hot stove because the last time you did it burned you is wise but not necessarily a sign of intelligence.

 

When presented with a problem, an intelligent person can work out a potential solution. A wise person knows what solutions have been applied in the past and which ones did or did not work.

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I see one basic tenet of wisdom being the ability to be "not swayed" from a particular course or lifestyle you see as clearly superior, despite social or political pressures to "fall in line" with the going consensus...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wisdom implies powers of discretion with respect to to intelligence. Intelligence is the template on which wisdom manifests itself.

Even baboons are intelligent but philosophers are wise,,,!!

 

Yes, intelligence can give the right answer to a question. But wisdom gives you the discretion to say something else instead.

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