Philosophical pondering
We truly live in an age of information. Whatever you want to know you can find on the internet with a simple search term in Google. For those fortunate, information is on a cell phone at our finger tips every day. What we do not know we can find out more with a moments notice. However it is certainly not an age of knowledge and even less an age of wisdom. Proof of this argument can be found in simply searching for how to make a bomb. The information is available…but the knowledge of life and how to settle disputes without war is lacking.
Our bigger challenge in life is not anymore just technological but it is how to apply all the information we do have. The example of the bomb shows how dangerous information can be without the knowledge and wisdom to inform that information. In history man moved through the age of reason which helped to unlock many scientific discoveries. Breaking from pure faith to rely on tangible evidence and interpretation of facts through a structured method brought advances in society that is beyond the imagination of men who walked the earth in previous centuries.
Reason brought man to the brink of skepticism where man began to doubt his own ability to even remotely know anything. Reason brought with it some knowledge but reason still failed to bring deeper wisdom. Wisdom is not found in the material world but in the phenomenal world. Reason rejected this world because it could not break it down into reasonable derivatives of explanation.
The age of reason brought advancement but failed miserably in bringing illumination. We need to transcend the age of information and we need to leverage the age of reason i order to enter into an age of wisdom.
zeal4living
Your quote ” However it is certainly not an age of knowledge and even less an age of wisdom” is a World of wisdom in itself.” I can’t add more to that nor do i need to… i was thinking along that line this morning back at zanga …Thanks for a great post! 🙂
I, too, wish there was more wisdom. We truly are lacking.
I believe that there is lots for each of us to discover within ourselves. We need to delve deeper so that we may learn that wisdom… and maybe help to enlighten others.
An age of wisdom, yes! Like discovering the world was not flat or that the earth travels around the sun and not vice-versa. The ages onset fast faster and faster. Let the wisdom age begin! 🙂
What disturbs me is not just the lack of insight accompanying knowledge but the inequality of access to knowledge. The levels of literacy across the globe are still poor, even in the UK where I am. Old people and poor people don’t always have immediate access to computers, or the skills to operate them in order to access information; and too many young people are still leaving school without the bare minimum of literacy. There is a rapidly growing split between those who have access to knowledge (I’m thinking here in particular legal advice, social benefits, political choice, etc.) and those who have no access and are thereby denied full participation in society.