Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Words of "Wisdom" - a mini study into the relationship between Fear and Wisdom
After reading the DQ in today's quiz asking how do I define knowledge I learned how closely I link knowledge to wisdom. After posting my answer I stumbled upon this quote from 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, "Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." I see the pursuit of wisdom as the most important thing in life because it makes me happy and supreme eternal happiness is what I see as the meaning of life. So I decided to do a mini study, a.k.a. Googling quotes of famous philosophers, about wisdom. Socrates said true knowledge was knowing you know nothing. The Buddha believed meditation brought about wisdom and if you were "peaceful, loving and fearless," you were wise. This brings up an interesting connection between wisdom and fear, which is what I see as the greatest roadblock, if you will, on the road to happiness. I was reading an article about the Stoic outlook (on the Daily Stoic) on fear and they quoted FDR; "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." Aristotle is quoted saying, "fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil." There are plenty more quotes with intriguing fonts and back drops of mountains to pull from, but none of them really hit the nail on the head for me about fear and wisdom. So it seems to me the wise outlook on fear is to take it into account and act despite your fears. Just like wisdom, fear is entirely mental. It's inside your own head and you're in complete control of it. You get to decide whether you want to live an organized, peaceful and happy life or allow fear to decide for you.
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Later in the Daily Stoic Article, which can be found here: https://dailystoic.com/stoic-response-fear/ , the writer says, "An economic depression is bad; a panic is worse. A tough situation isn’t helped by terror— it only makes things harder." This article was written in 2019 and never mentions this pandemic but that perfectly encapsulates what is happening in the world today. However, I didn't want to talk about the virus but I figured I'd include it down here.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point. That's why I always cite Douglas Adams's Hitchhikers advice, "Don't panic." We can't entirely overcome fear in an unsettled and uncertain time, but we can refuse to surrender to it. "Feel the fear and do it anyway" is also good advice.
DeleteI do like that quote from Kant. Knowledge is important, but it's not all of life. Health, among other things, is crucial. (Don't we know it!)
As condescending as this may sound, i believe that there are some people out there in the world that thrive on and spread panic for their own enjoyment, which doesn't help anything except spreading unnecessary fear.
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