Knowledge and Wisdom

"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."-Immanuel Kant

We humans are some of the most gifted of all animals. Our mental faculty is one of the most developed in all the Animal Kingdom. And it is on this, Our Intellect, that our sole survival depends. Two words echo quite often- Knowledge and Wisdom.

Well to think of it, to any individual both Knowledge and Wisdom might seem synonymous. Both seem to point to the same thing: A measure of a Man's intellect. That is how we take it.

Knowledge maybe defined as justified true belief i.e. it is a belief backed by reason. It might be appropriate to say that knowledge is something that is bounded to one's rationality and is acquired via learning, i.e. knowledge depends on one's formal education, his perceptions and what he observes.As Confucius aptly puts it:"When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge."

Wisdom can be aptly described as knowledge coupled with judgement. Wisdom is a byproduct of one's experience and capabilities. Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

"Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired."-Titus Maccius Plautus.

So far, it might still seem that both bear resemblance, but the fact is both Knowledge and Wisdom as entirely exclusive terms. It might occur to a person, that Wisdom comes with Knowledge, but without the Capacity for Wisdom, a man cannot be called Wise. It is so because Wisdom,as mentioned earlier, involves two key parameters:

1. Knowledge
2. Judgement

Now a man could have Knowledge, and yes it is a prerequisite for Wisdom. But Judgement is something that truly determines a man's Wisdom. And Judgement is based on one's understanding, experience,discretion and emotional neutrality. Hence, Wisdom is not a byproduct of Knowledge, the two are mutually exclusive entities.

"To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."-Marilyn vos Savant