Seeking Wisdom

[coberst]

Seeking Wisdom

 

In the summer of 48 my older brother told me that if I wanted to play high school football I had to ‘get ready’. In his terms, ‘getting ready’ meant running to get in condition for the rigors of football practice.

 

In the summer of 06 I want to begin the quest for wisdom. How do I ‘get ready’ for becoming wise?

 

Starting with the definition of wisdom as “seeing life whole” seems to be as good a place to begin as I can think of. How do I get ready to see life whole?

 

It seems to me that to see life whole I must learn a great deal more than I already have learned but I must start with where I presently am. I am convinced that learning new stuff requires three aspects (a position facing a particular direction) of mind; mentally I must have curiosity, caring, and an orderly mind.

 

 

I claim that curiosity and caring are necessary conditions for understanding. Understanding is a far step beyond knowing. I will not examine a matter for the purpose of understanding it unless I am curious about it. I must care enough about the matter to do the intellectual work necessary to understand.

 

Understanding is a step beyond knowing and is seldom required or measured by schooling. Understanding is generally of disinterested knowledge, i.e. disinterested knowledge is an intrinsic (due to the nature of the self) value. Disinterested knowledge is not a means but an end. It is knowledge I seek because I desire to know it. I mean the term ‘disinterested knowledge’ as similar to ‘pure research’, as compared to ‘applied research’. Pure research seeks to know truth unconnected to any specific application.

 

Understanding is often difficult and time consuming and the justification is not extrinsic (outside cause) but intrinsic.

 

Questions for consideration:

Is caring necessary for understanding? I think so.

What is ‘understanding’?

Is curiosity necessary for knowing? I think so.

Is curiosity necessary for understanding? I think so.

Is a knowledge of history required to ‘see life whole’? Absolutely!!

Is difficulty our duty? I think so.

[arkain101]

Some Very Important Starters,

 

Do not believe what the world puts before you.

 

Never take anything you believe as your final and whole understanding of the world.

 

Only once you have carefully analyzed a belief, made sure it agrees with logical reasoning, and viewed from several other points of view or posistions and found that it agrees with each of those processes should you declare a belief as a part of your understanding of the world.

 

In all understandings you gather you should always allow the room for growth and/or change in the undertsanding you have developed.

 

No understanding is a element that can be given to an individual.

 

An understanding is a creation you have to make out of the things that are offered to you to take as a belief.

 

You make your understanding by your process of analaysis, logic, and efficient point of view processes.

 

 

No book writes itself.

All information unwinds out of a mind, stored in books and stories.

Because of this, everything can only offer to you belief, but be your own creator in all your understandings.

[coberst]

I think of comprehension as like a pyramid with awareness at the base, followed by consciousness (focus of attention), then knowing with understanding at the pinnacle.

 

We are aware of many things but conscious of much less, we are conscious of many things but know much less, and we are knowledgably of much more than we understand.

 

What do you think of this organization and where does ‘belief’ fit in if this does make sense to you?

[paigetheoracle]

Questions for consideration:

Is caring necessary for understanding? I think so.

What is ‘understanding’?

Is curiosity necessary for knowing? I think so.

Is curiosity necessary for understanding? I think so.

Is a knowledge of history required to ‘see life whole’? Absolutely!!

Is difficulty our duty? I think so.

 

1) Yes, you have to want an answer to get one

2) Discernment - that is no longer being baffled by what you observe as an outsider but becoming an insider

3) Curiosity is the interlectual equivalent of caring: Understanding is the moment of enlightenment when you see the truth of a situation and this becomes certainty or 'knowledge'

4) "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them" (George Santyanna). Ignorance isn't a very good guide, it will get you lost every time

5) Difficulty is a necessary byproduct of the struggle to get to the truth: What is hidden cannot be exposed to the light of day without effort (That already on display can be abandoned as self explanatory. By this I mean anything not resistant to our aims will hold no fascination for us)

[coberst]

I said “Is curiosity necessary for knowing? I think so”. This was a typo on my part. Knowing is what we constantly do in our schooling experience without caring one bit about what we are required to know. I think that understanding is a different matter completely

 

I have for some time been interested in trying to understand what ‘understand’ means. I have reached the conclusion that ‘curiosity then caring’ is the first steps toward understanding. Without curiosity we care for nothing. Once curiosity is in place then caring becomes necessary for understanding.

 

Often I discover that the person involved in organizing some action is a person who has had a personal experience leading her to this action. Some person who has a family member afflicted by a disease becomes very active in helping support research in that disease, for example.

 

I suspect our first experience with ‘understanding’ may be our first friendship. I think that this first friendship may be an example of what Carl Sagan meant by “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy”.

 

I also suspect that the boy who falls in love with automobiles and learns everything he can about repairing the junk car he bought has discovered ‘understanding’.

 

I suspect many people go their complete life and never have an intellectual experience that culminates in the “ecstasy of understanding”. How can this be true? I think that our educational system is designed primarily for filling heads with knowledge and hasn’t time to waste on ‘understanding’.

 

Understanding an intellectual matter must come in the adult years if it is to ever come to many of us. I think that it is very important for an adult to find something intellectual that will excite his or her curiosity and concern sufficiently so as to motivate the effort necessary to understand.

 

Understanding does not come easily but it can be “a kind of ecstasy”.

 

I think of understanding as being a creation of meaning by the thinker. As one attempts to understand something that person will construct through imagination a model--like a papier-mâché--of the meaning. Like an artist painting her understanding of something. As time goes by the model takes on what the person understands about that which is studied. The model is very subjective and you and I may study something for some time and we both have learned to understand it but if it were possible to project an image of our model they would be unidentifiable perhaps by the other. Knowledge has a universal quality but not understanding.

 

Understanding is a tipping point, when water becomes ice, it is like a gestalt perception it may never happen no matter how hard we try. The unconscious is a major worker for understanding.

 

I think that it is our duty as a citizen to do many things that are difficult. Just as a parent must do many things that are difficult because they are responsible for their children’s well being, likewise with a citizen as regarding his or her nation.