Wisdom versus intelligence, does one beget the other?

In my view, not necessarily, though they are related, but they are independent faculties.

I knew a high IQ kid in school, but he was a social cripple. But, then, again, that fact doesn't prove he lacked wisdom.

A man with high IQ can build an exquisite bridge, but a man without wisdom will build a bridge to nowhere.

Wisdom is extremely important.

George Bush had a high IQ (120 is above average), but was the war in IRAQ wise?

He was smart enough to persuade congress to go along with his scheme, most of whom were intelligent, but were they wise?

High IQ men designed the federal reserve and the fractional banking system, but it has raised prices from a time when a house could be purchased for $2k and today it costs $500k, so were they wise? For the bankers they were wise, but for the rest of us, they were not wise.

High IQ men brought us electricity, and Tesla, a wise man, was overruled by an intelligent banker who wouldn't allow Tesla's free energy technology to be known to the world, as you can't put a meter on free energy, so was the banker wise?

An IQ test cannot measure wisdom, so are it's designers wise?

Do not underestimate the value of wisdom.

One musician knows 3 chords but 10,000 people love his music, enough for him to earn a living.

Another musician knows 10,000 chords, but only 3 people love his music, not enough to earn a living from music.

Which musician is wiser?

THe answer depends on how we are measuring wisdom, what the measuring stick is aligned to.

If money is the key to wisdom, the musician who knew 3 chords was wiser.

However, a wise man knows that the key to wisdom is not money ('per se').

Therefore, neither was the wiser.

Wisdom cannot be, therefore, easily measured, which is why IQ tests cannot measure it (or, at least, there is no test I know of that can measure it).

In my view, intelligence is not as important as wisdom.

But, let me be clear, I do not claim to be wise.

I'm a bit tickled by old friend, Socrates, who understood that the only thing he
absolutely knew for certain was absolutely nothing, but his wisdom is
still being employed in law schools throughout America.

In my view, though they are related, one does not necessarily beget the other, and if both reside in quantity in the same individual, it is an anomaly of nature. If it is a beneficial mutation, maybe in another 100 thousand years (or whatever it takes for evolution to do it's thing) we will all be intelligent and wise, that is, if mankind, owing to his lack of wisdom, lives beyond this century.

 

Okay, I will admit I'm coming from the point of view of a Dungeons and Dragons player. In that game, Wisdom and Intelligence are separate states, and I think for a good reason. As one Dungeon Master once put it to me: "Intelligence tells you whether or not those clouds on the horizon mean that rain is coming; Wisdom tells you whether or not you should seek shelter."

I'll throw another example out, this time more grounded in reality . . . but still just as nerdy. My best friend in college was a physics major. The dude now works in quantum computing and is one of the best known names in the field outside of academia (he went to the private sector after his PhD). There is no denying this guy is highly Intelligent. He does complex differential equations for fun and has even taught the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to middle school students using nothing more than three polarized lenses.

You could tell there was a "but" coming, didn't you? One night he asked me over for pizza and a beer because he was struggling with something and wanted my advice. I went over and the first words out of his mouth were, "Yardmeat, you are really good at staying out of trouble with your girlfriend. My girlfriend is furious with me right now, and I can't figure out why. The pizza and beer are on me if you'll help me figure this out." We talked for HOURS until, finally, we were both getting exhausted and walked to get more beer and pizza. While on our walk, this guy starts randomly sharing a story about how his girlfriend had come to him upset because she had done poorly on a test, and he said he tried to comfort her by telling her that he "wasn't dating her for her brains." He suddenly pauses, gasps, and says, "Do you think maybe that's why she's mad at me?" Yeah, I'd call that a lack of Wisdom.

 

When I was going to Nuclear Power School in the Navy there was a saying that a Nuke (what sailors in the nuclear power program are called) is a 50/50/90. That means given a question with a 50/50 answer, a nuke will get it wrong 90% of the time.

You have to be VERY smart to get into the nuclear power program.

 

There are many kinds of intelligence. I think some intelligence is required for wisdom. Intelligence is basically the ability to use knowledge. If one has very limited knowledge, one can still be intelligent, but not necessarily wise. The classic example is comparing the very bright young child to a somewhat less intelligent, but far more experienced person. I think one can be intelligent and experienced but still be unwise. Some of this is accounted for by different kinds of intelligence, but there are other factors that come into play such as emotional health.

 

I was in the Navy and the biggest mistake I made was not going for 20, and getting my pension. I would have gotten out in 2004 but I didn't reenlist in 1987, and boy could I use it now.

The tests measure an aptitude, which might be useful for engineering, math, but for something like law school? I don't think an IQ test will
be a good predictor of performance in the liberal arts.

 

Judas Priest says that you don’t have to be old to be wise.

 

Given that genius tends to positively correlate with mental illness, I reckon there's a point at which being highly intelligent limits ones wisdom and possibly vise versa. I don't think one is more important than the other. If we were all wise, the world would be a peaceful place, but we would still be living in, albeit finely crafted, mud huts, smashing things very skillfully with rocks. But without wisdom, the intelligent people would have all slaughtered eachother with their advanced weapons by now. The world needs both, and it seems most people can only be one or the other.

 

heh, my first thought was DnD as well. One of the guys I used to play with was a certified genius (based on IQ). He skated through high school with a C by failing all his homework assignments (by not doing them) while acing all the tests.

Then he went to college and failed out immediately.

Very smart, but not wise.

 

Yeah, perfect example. You nailed it

 

WHat you call different types of intelligence I would call various different talents.

 

If we were all wise, there wouldn't be wars, and perhaps technology would advance at the rate we are mature enough to use the technology. A match is a bit of technology, but you don't want to give it to a child. Mankind, with it's atomic bomb, is like the child with the match. Now, if we were wise, maybe we wouldn't have the atomic bomb, but would we need it? No. We would be mature enough to handle technology where it doesn't harm the environment, we'd grow in technology commensurate with our mature ot use the technology without destroying and polluting the world around us.

In other words, maybe we wouldn't be as technologically advanced, but we'd have technology commensurate with our maturity level.

Which, in my view, is where it should be. And that is what wisdom means, to me, anyway.

 

I think this is the central answer, to the point where saying anything about them without first establishing a measuring stick is only confusing and misleading.

I think this illustrates the problem with the phrasing of the question. I would say understanding where the bridge needs to be built is an act of intelligence as well. We don't ask sages and common-sense people where we want bridges built, we construct goal-driven models of usage and cost/benefit, we set out to structure the problem and solve it robustly, not that differently to how one might construct a bridge.

Wisdom to me is usually to intuit the right answer, without necessarily understanding where the right answer comes from. Our brains are good at finding patterns and constructing new ideas in those patters, but they're not great at showing their work, or accounting for edge cases (unless you've trained yourself for that, and at that point, I'd call it intelligence). It is faster to intuit where the bridge should be built than it is to build a cost-benefit model, but talking about a bridge built to nowhere is comparing wisdom done well with intelligence done badly, which doesn't seem like a fair comparison.

But then again, all the above depends on my understanding of the words. If we use a slightly different understanding, the entire argument goes out the window.

 

There is an assumption hAt there is a consensus what on the definitions and identification of intelligence and wisdom; there isn’t.

 

Yes, and....

Intelligence is to know that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is to know that you won't put it in an ice cream split

 

Proof that they are separate faculties can be established thus: IQ is pretty much fixed, a constant throughout your live, you might be able to improve it a little, but not much. Wisdom, however, can be gained, learned through experience and years of just living.

 

Wisdom vs intelligence is an interesting thread title poised for discussion.

I think we’ve all known a book-smart person that ultimately fails to lead a successful and prosperous life.

One has to wonder if IQ rules, meaning intelligence… Or life’s experience’s with common sense and a street-smart history has the edge, meaning wisdom.

I see a difference between the two.

 

Intellect is measurable. It is the ability and potential to learn,

Wisdom comes from experience...and the 'seasoning" that comes with experience which in turn is demonstrated by one's judgment capacity.
It is not tangible and is more abstract.

 

Almost there, but one essential factor appears to be missing from your summary above.

The ability to LEARN from EXPERIENCES, both positive and negative, must exist in order to achieve Wisdom but then that LEARNING must be APPLIED when appropriate.

Wisdom does NOT require a high IQ, in fact that might be an IMPEDIMENT to achieving wisdom. Elon Musk is allegedly a "genius" (not so IMO) but he really SUCKS at the practical stuff like being able to manage people and money. He does NOT appear to be capable of learning from any of his mistakes.

Anyone can learn enough to be wise, the local rural farmer who just needs to glance at the clouds and knows that the low lying areas and roads will be flooded from years of experience. Moving his animals to safety is the wise move and one he will take without needing input from the weather service. If he also notifies the local sheriff to prepare for local road flooding then he is sharing his knowledge if the sheriff is not a local themselves. If the sheriff is wise he will heed the farmer.

Two types of wisdom, one from self learning and the other knowing when to listen to the wisdom of others because you do not have their knowledge. Both play a role because wisdom not shared and/or wisdom not heeded effectively negate the wisdom itself.

 

The BEST way of summing up knowledge versus wisdom

 

Damn! You beat me

 

Well, this still avoids the point I'm making, and that you made yourself in the OP, that it depends on what you mean by the words. IQ and intelligence are not the same thing (unless you arbitrarily decide to define one as the other). The experience and intuition that you develop over time that you call wisdom here, I would happily call "intelligence" as well.

 

Perhaps we could define wisdom as the appropriate application of lessons learned by those intelligent enough to understand them.

 

Have you tried it?

 

I have really good news for you......

... if my belief that near death experience accounts are the primary tool for the fulfillment of this prediction:


Jeremiah 23:20The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly."

... Then.....
within two centuries essentially ninety to ninety nine point nine percent of humans will have WISDOM......



https://near-death.com/howard-storm-nde/

 

History has given a number of mystics, most of whom were men, as antiquity was largely patriarchal.

But, Mary Magdalene might have been privy to some seriously esoteric teachings, and maybe she became enlightened, too?

Of the number of mystics history has brought us, Lao Tsu, Siddartha, Jesus, and others, I like them all, but regarding Jesus, the Gospel I like the most was not included in the official cannon, and that is the Gospel Of Thomas.

There is a Gospel Of Mary, but I've not read it yet. I will do it soon.

I don't need a 'NDE', i've had OOBEs before, and this is why I know we are spiritual beings, and reincarnation is reality.
We keep coming back until we reach enlightenment, which is the eastern philosophy's version of 'heaven'.

But, this Christianity thing about 'being righteous, accepting Jesus as one's savior' and if one doesn't, one is going to hell, is a bunch of hooey. The path to God is just to be righteous, to be humble and kind, (and that isn't as easy as it sounds) and there is no guarantee you'll make this time around, but maybe on the next, you will. You just keep coming back until it happens. It will happen when it happens.