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Can Wisdom be taught

Unlike knowledge, which is about intellectualizing things instead of finding a deeper meaning, wisdom is working to understand the limits of one’s knowledge. Wisdom can be equated to learned intuition, which means it cannot be taught. It is learned instinctively through experiences and understanding how to apply knowledge in decision-making (Ferrari & Potworowski). Knowledge is about learning to be a mason, but wisdom is about using the masonry skills to build oneself a house. Wisdom cannot be taught.

Wisdom is essentially good judgment and without good judgment knowledge and experience are lost (Kets de Vries). The ability to make good judgment cannot be taught. Humans have weaknesses including lust, greed, anger, envy, and pride all that could judgment laying knowledge and experience to waste. An individual who overcomes all these weaknesses masters wisdom. How to overcome these vices and weaknesses is not something that cannot be taught. Wisdom is the ability to draw interconnections between various ideas, bits of knowledge, and situational awareness. It is surprising to know that a lot of people are not able to get these things correct and end up not benefiting from either the knowledge or experience.

Wisdom cannot be taught because it is important to teach experience or good judgment, but institutions can create opportunities for young people to gain experience. The opportunity to reflect and feed the knowledge back to real life and use it for situational awareness when dealing with problems is very important in a system trying to increase wisdom. However, the gaining of wisdom is solely dependent on the individual and their choices. Experiences and knowledge will impact the judgment of some more than others. So there is no way to learn wisdom, it is something that develops from within shaped by knowledge and experiences.

Works Cited

Ferrari, Michel, and Georges Potworowski, eds. Teaching for wisdom: Cross-cultural perspectives on fostering wisdom. Springer Science & Business Media, 2008.

Kets de Vries, M. “Why Wisdom Can’t Be Taught.” INSEAD Knowledge, 23 June 2017, knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/why-wisdom-cant-be-taught-6456.