Dear Chris:
You raised an interesting question. These are my opinions about wisdom and intelligence:
First, I feel that there is a difference and the difference between the two is something that we are supposed to create and accept and one should know how to give the convincing details of the difference (though one need not be very confident about it just like me).
Wisdom can be considered as a driving force behind the ‘intelligence’ attribute of grown up human beings. This force always takes us in a positive direction. It is something which later on in our life inspires and forces us to bring ‘intelligence into action’ and hence to make it useful to self and society.
Intelligence is an innate quality we are born with, influenced later on by many things. Wisdom of ancestors decides what knowledge we gain in education. Intelligence decides how fast one learn, ones ability and capacity to acquire, stores knowledge and to process it for creating alternatives paths for solving problems and then taking the best possible path. Wisdom is more attached with us when one becomes a responsible person, a kind of authority, and one is suppose to take some levels of decisions on its own. After a certain level, wisdom, knowledge and intelligence go hand in hand till different levels of saturations and satisfactions are achieved. The spiritual, ethical and societal level of intelligence is generally more felt as wisdom and the difference between the two is something that we are supposed to make and accept and one should know to give the detail of difference.
Wisdom defines the short-term, long-term abstract purpose of knowledge. Intelligence helps in creating logical details and connecting emotions with rationality. Understanding the details of physics and mathematics needs intelligence but why to invest in them? Certainly history tells us that the enrichment and later utilization of natural knowledge has been useful for mankind. So, mainly, societal wisdom, which can be considered as set of institutions, continuously nourished with personal level wisdoms determine to invest in such endeavors of knowledge enrichment. Now, when we should stop the investments in Physics and Maths and utilize the resource for some better and immediate use of mankind? This decision that has some link to wisdom would need ultimate intelligence to proceed with.
Intelligence is very important as a part of wisdom and main force for the progress of societal wisdom. But worldwide it has been underestimated especially by the academia in the recent years. That’s the real problems with academia these days. Even after a sufficient amount of literature and efforts on how science is useful for society academia doesn’t seem satisfied with itself. The problem is that the justifying skills, the emotional intelligence of higher order is missing; some may think saturation at societal-wisdom has arrived. In one of my paper I have written that to move forward with wisdom we need intellectuals supported by ‘artificial intelligent systems’ and not just intellectuals or wise people. Wisdom without intelligence is less likely to find better alternatives for problems, attain level of higher orders, may lead to premature satisfaction, ‘emotional foolishness.’
Finally, many times wisdom is lost in intelligence. One develops self-centric view of the world that if I will think of my development only even then I am contribution enough towards society. Still under situations some feeble force of wisdom remains. Some wise people do not remain satisfied with this alone. They make more efforts especially rational ones, the most important of changing world by changing institutions so as to enrich societal wisdom. Sometimes the wisdom is lost in emotions as well. Like in the present academia, wisdom in lost in emotions alone. Like they would open small centers and would run forums and would daydreams of changing the whole academic world without going into the sufficient amount of technical details of the problems. Problem solving needs more details of how to acquire, store, distrinbute and utilize knowledge, more of an ‘intelligence’ attribute.
So we (though I am not an academician, but still I considers myself as an unofficial stake holder in academia) are not making that much intelligent efforts that academia is suppose to make so as to enrich societal wisdom. Seems that science is trying to escape from the realities of life and nature.
Convinced or not.
Further exchange of words over this topic is welcomed.
Regards,
Aditya
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