SEN isn't the go-to place for profound philosophical discussions. It's like a broken clock; rarely right, and when it is, only by coincidence.

Except me, of course.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 16 2010, 2:26 am by Centreri.

The modesty question has nothing to do with the truth of whether you actually are or are not modest, rather its only to do with other people's opinion of you. If someone asks you the question and you answer yes, you might actually be modest, but through some weird social stigma people think that the "yes" answer implies you aren't modest. Modesty isn't just for the weak either, mostly because modesty stems from a confident reserve in the abilities you have, not a lack of ability. If you're terrible at sports, you can't be modest when people ask you about sports, because you were never good in the first place. However, if you are the best tennis player in the world, and people ask you if you're good at tennis, you can say "well, yes, I'm pretty good" rather than "yeah I'm the best player in the world, suck it" because you are confident in your ability and don't get any enjoyment out of flaunting it.

Fixed

I call this being cocky/arrogant more than non-modest. >_>

Usually, flaunting causes you more harm then it does to your joy.

Cocky (or arrogant) and modest are generally considered to be opposites. While you can, I suppose, be somewhere in between, if you are refraining from being arrogant then you are showing some modesty.

Well, my initial accusation was not rooted in modesty, actually. I meant that if you assume you are wise, that probably means you assume that you know everything there is to know about anything. Which of itself is impossible.

I guess everyone's taking my words way too seriously. >_>
... which is rather funny since everyone seems to think I'm an immature-fucktard^.

The quotation from Socrates sums things up pretty much.

But I've always thought of "being wise" to mean that one has a lot of knowledge over many different subjects, kind of like being a polymath but not necessarily as gifted.

Of course, wisdom is relative. I might be considered wise among idiots but I'd be considered an idiot among the wise.

Quote from payne

I guess everyone's taking my words way too seriously. >_>
... which is rather funny since everyone seems to think I'm an immature-fucktard^.

Funny you made a point to include a video at the end of the sentence like that. Video is:

Wise seems more of a relative word to me. Sort of like how most words in English have multiple meanings.

tl;dr the topic apart from skimming OP

Wisdom is something that you are not born with. It develops over a period of time. Certainly you can be more wise than people of your age group, but it's extremely unlikely that a 24 year old will be less wise than a 16 year old (not saying it doesn't happen). Perhaps each person has a certain capacity for wisdom as they are born, but all I know is that I was an idiot when I was 18 (when I first joined this site).

Both wisdom and intelligence are learned in similar ways, but it's clear they are two separate things. I like to think of intelligence as a gauge of your knowledge, and wisdom as the practical use of that intelligence. The older you get, the more you learn about how to use your intelligence. There are a number of people who do not know very much, they do not have much of an education, but they are extremely wise. My aunt is the exact opposite. She has a Ph.D. in microbiology and teaches at UCLA, but she also called the fire department to come get her cat out of a tree (which they heard "calf" and so did the news media so everyone showed up at her house).

Wisdom is not all or nothing either. You can be wise in a number of subjects and unwise in others. For example, I was watching "undercover boss" and the white castle episode features a black guy who simply excels at his job. He leaves a remarkable impression upon the CEO. It's obvious this man is not intelligent, nor is he all that wise (I'm pretty sure he doesn't know how to save his money). However he shows wisdom at his job. He's done it for a long time, knows the in and outs, and is extremely efficient.

The real breakthroughs occur when you are both intelligent and wise. My grandfather worked in a tire factory which was unionized. Each person was assigned a quota of tires, and once you fill that quota, you can't make anymore, but you still have to work (ie free time). He was so efficient at his job that he completed his quota in 2 hours, when it took most other people 8 hours. However, he was a terrible father, and quite unwise in the army (he would pull pranks to piss off the drill sergeant all the time--one could argue this saved his life, but I think he was just lucky to get a non-combat job).

I also think that doubt is a key component of wisdom.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 17 2010, 3:57 pm by rockz.

That's interesting. My Uncle is a Ph.D in Computer Science and teaches at UC Berkeley <_<.

Isn't that more of an idiot savant?

I take it back, she works somewhere in biochemistry in california.There's a fine line between being mentally handicapped (the general association of "idiot savant") and being of below average intelligence, but very good at one thing. He's also good at interacting with people, which is one thing that I think savants are generally required to lack. His skill is also not unusual for normal people (he's worked at it a long time).

This skill you're associating with wisdom... making burgers?

handling customers at the drive through window and making sure everyone gets exactly what they want in a short amount of time. However, "cooking" could be a skill too which uses wisdom. I think we all can agree that alton brown is very wise and intelligent when it comes to food.