Knowledge and wisdom

 

Knowledge and wisdom.

 

Wise men lay up knowledge, but the babbling of a fool brings ruin near. (Prov. 10:14)

 

This proverb begins with wise people who “lay up,” or store, knowledge.

 

This is more than just collecting facts.

 Knowledge of the world is definitely a good in itself, but the knowledge of facts and data requires the wise person’s ability to organize and interpret that information.

Wisdom takes the facts of life and makes good sense of them.

When knowledge has been organized through key concepts and ideas we are able to see knowledge patterns that are useful for forming a coherent view of the world.

 

When information appear to be useful, people want to remember it in order to use it in the future.

For example, parents remember their children’s responses to various disciplinary techniques, and a wife remembers the ef­fects her annoying habits have on her husband.

The organizing principles that underlie these remembered facts are the improvement of the children’s behaviour or the development of a better relationship with one’s spouse.

The same principle applies to all knowledge: people have certain goals and purposes that induce them to seek out some types of knowledge and remember them, while ignoring other things that seem irrelevant.

The sage is the person who stores up and organizes the kinds of knowledge that are truly useful for living a good life with God and other people, both during this life and into eternity.

The “fool,” on the other hand, speaks and acts without knowing much or without understanding why some knowledge is especially important, good, and true, while other knowledge is unhelpful.

For instance, gossip, whether from Hollywood or from the neighbor­hood, is generally useless information.

People who speak without knowledge of the facts tend to speak too much and too loudly as a way to cover up their ignorance.

This is more than annoying when the babbling fool is in a position of authority, as in politics, punditry, or teaching.

The wise person seeks to know much, to organize that knowledge wisely, and to speak with truth and moral righteousness.

We must become wise when we gain knowledge.

Lourdu Selvam

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