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Matthew Flash
1/20/2011
Paper # 2
Philosophical Wisdom or Scientific Knowlege
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There has been an attempt to define philosoph for a !er long time" #
definition$ the %ree& philosophia$ means 'the lo!e of wisdom( )Palmer$ pg *+" Word
definition is re,-ired for the p-rpose of lang-age$ et it does not seem necessar for the
'thin&er( to categori.e philosoph as a whole into separate disciplines" The 'Thin&er$(
being an person of an le!el of &nowledge" Whether the e/act date of origin of
philosoph e/ists$ it is apparent that degeneration occ-rs when one tries to create a
form-la o-t of it" 0ne partic-lar degeneration$ which emanated from philosophia$ was
science" The are different beca-se one is inferior" Philosoph is abo-t wisdom and
science is abo-t &nowledge"
Philosoph is abo-t the bigger ,-estion" 1t is tr-e that e!erone can be
considered a philosopher" 1f a person has e!er as&ed a ,-estion in which a definite
answer co-ld not be gi!en$ then that person was philosophi.ing" For e/ample$ as
children we often as&ed the ,-estion where babies came from" 2s o-ng as we were$
we &new we were a child from o-r parents$ et we still wondered how e/actl we came
to be" 2nd of co-rse parents to this da find it diffic-lt e/plaining this phenomenon since
it wo-ld be hard for the o-ng mind to grasp" Philosoph is abo-t tal&ing bac& )3mbree
1/14/2011+" # philosophi.ing one -s-all challenges information that is alread &nown
or gi!en in search of tr-th" When one searches for the tr-th and e/periences the tr-th
for themsel!es the gain wisdom" So it is !alid to sa the philosopher5s goal is to gain
wisdom"
Science6 on the other hand$ is the search of e/perimental &nowledge" The
scientist &nows that water is made -p of hdrogen and o/gen atoms$ b-t what ma&es
this information -sef-l7 1t seems onl for e/perimentation" The scientist in his lab can
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separate the two particles$ collect the hdrogen atoms and mabe e!en create a
hdrogen bomb" The wise person &nows water is a !al-able commodit" The &now for
themsel!es that when the drin& it$ the are refreshed" 1f the scientist$ thro-gh9o-t his
e/periments$ ne!er -sed water to ,-ench his thirst$ then he wo-ld ine!itabl be
considered a fool" Knowledge is -seless -nless it can be -sed for the benefit of life
itself"
The philosopher Socrates wo-ld probabl den science" The stor abo-t his
lect-re to the :-dge and :-rors portras smbolicall the -se of wisdom o!er &nowledge"
;e claimed ignorance beca-se he belie!ed it was not possible to &now e!erthing$ nor
was it necessar" 2 person who lac&s &nowledge is ignorant$ th-s if fact Socrates was
ignorant" The :-dges can be seen as the scientists who belie!e the ha!e &nowledge to
e/periment$ th-s ma&ing them fit to :-dge" The hold on to what thin& the &now with
pride$ while Socrates h-mbl accepts the tr-th of his ignorance"
<ltimatel$ thro-gh philosoph Socrates became a wise man" 1n search of tr-th$
he was willing to disc-ss topic '=( )2n topic+ with anone who claimed to ha!e
&nowledge" Wisdom is to %od as &nowledge is to h-mans" Thro-gh science$ one tends
to &nowledge of nat-ral things$ b-t thro-gh philosoph one tends to &nowledge of
greater things$ which is wisdom" >et -s all di!orce &nowledge and fall in lo!e with
Sophia )wisdom+"