I remember that during our freshman year in our MOI class, The Trial and Death of Socrates we had to read several books from Plato like The Republic and The Apology. I also remember that throughout the entire course we had to find the definition of justice and by the end of the class we found that there isn't a concrete definition. The truth is that it has been three years and I can hardly remember anything from that class, therefore I didn't even remember what the Apology was about. Now that I've read it again I am starting to get some flashbacks from the class and I am remembering some of the things we talked about. We never talked too much about wisdom, but now, three years later here we are using the same text to talk about it in relation to service learning.
I think wisdom is different to intelligence; it is something that you gain through experience and through other people's experiences. I think some of the wisest people are elderly people who have lived their entire lives experiencing all sorts of things and are now willing to share it with others so that we can become wiser.
I enjoy the approach that Socrates takes on the definition of wisdom because he says that he is the wisest person because he recognizes that he doesn't know anything. I wouldn't personally frame it like that because you have to know something to recognize that you are wise, for example he at least knows that he doesn't know. But the thing that I like about his approach is the focus that it gives on humbleness. I think being humble is a very important value because as I said it before you can only become wiser if you are open to learn from others, but if you think you are the best, or too good for others then you will not be able to become wiser.
Both, being humble and gaining wisdom have been meaningful to me throughout my life and my college experience. Even though I didn't even remember the reading from freshman year, I still place those values on a high level because I am here in college to learn from others and not to show that I am better than others. In class I learn and try becoming more intelligent, but every day I learn a new thing either inside or outside of class that helps me become wiser by observing people and being open to learn from them.
I think it is very appropriate to start our course with a reflection on wisdom because service learning is a great opportunity for us to learn from others but we will only be able to do it if we are humble and are open listen to what other people think.
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Although I did not come up with the same definition of wisdom, I agree that it can definitely come from life’s experiences. I work at a nursing home and thus have interaction with elderly people on a regular basis. It seems to me like they are rather wise as well. They have such a variety of experiences from which to draw wisdom. Many of their experiences are more hands on than ours. For example, the other day one lady was telling me how she did these extensive calculations on how her and her husband could pay off their farm. I was trying to compare it to any computer program that we would use and could not come up with one. It seems like hands on experiences like this one allow one to draw more wisdom than using a computer.
Being someone who has not read The Apology before, I was reassured to learn that you did not remember all of it crystal clear. I did not pull out the humbleness concept like you were able to do from the reading; I spent most of my time merely trying to figure out what was going on. I can see how humility plays into wisdom in a big way. When I think about the elderly population and their wisdom, humility is something that comes to mind. They are never boastful in their way of telling you their wisdom; they are always humble and wait for you to ask. I hope we can learn from their example and be open-minded so we can add to our wisdom from serving this fall.
Alejandra (and Jill)
Nice exchange about humility, which has a long tradition of being associted with wisdom. When the writers of the Book of Proverbs want to emphasize the imporatnce of being humble, they insist that knowledge begins with what they call "fear of God." Fear has a number of connotations today, but certainly humility remains central.
It will be interesting for all of us to experience the interplay of the elderly and youth in the washington neighborhood. My gess is that there will be times when the traditional "wisdom" of the older generation of homeowners really frustrates us. We'll see. jw
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