The Monday Morning Quarterback

Sunday's sermon was "Pursuing Wisdom." I noted how the social sciences do not use the word "wisdom" because of the difficulty defining it. I defined wisdom as "knowledge in the service of love," and explained that the problem social scientists have with the definition is that it is not "value-free" like knowledge, intelligence, or information. As past American Psychological Association president, Robert Sternberg, noted in an article on wisdom in a New York Times article last month, intelligence and wisdom are not the same thing. Wisdom connotes reciprocity, concern for others, and living the golden rule.

I received an email from someone who heard the sermon yesterday and shared thoughts the sermon provoked about wisdom:

While I see the connection with Virtue, I think the real reason it's gone out of style is the dynamic shift in thinking that occurred in the mid '60s to early '70s in the Social Sciences. There was a quite noticeable shift to metric defined discussions and away from the intangible and unquantifiable. Excluding folks like Milton Friedman and others at the University of Chicago, there was an almost seismic shift to defining behaviors with measurements. This, perhaps, came out of the post WWII generations hard belief that science and technology would be the defining force in their lives. Ironic, considering the sacrifices they made based mostly on ideas of patriotism, love of country, and love of family. Considering this, it's not surprising that the concept of "wisdom" has fallen out of favor.

At a deeper level, I really think this explains why faith seems to get a hard knock. If you think about it, fundamentally, wisdom and faith are the same thing. Neither can be measured, conveniently defined, nor described by a complex metric. You either have them or you don't, and almost anyone can point out others who DO have these characteristics. To most in the Social Sciences this boarders on heresy. If you can't measure it or define it it's not worth study and is relegated to the realm of Philosophy and Religion.

I don't think wisdom and faith are the same thing (although related), but I think he is correct in pointing out that they can't be measured, conveniently defined, or described by a complex metric.

I would be interested to have others join the conversation about wisdom. What do you think?