"As health, strength, vigor and vitality are bodily goods, so information, knowledge, understanding and wisdom are goods of the mind - goods that acquired, perfect it."
Mortimer Adler, A Guidebook To Learning For The Lifelong Pursuit Of Wisdom, p. 110
We live in what some call the information age. It is the age of the internet. Information is in super abundance. But what is the goal of learning this information? Is education a game of Trivial Pursuit? What is the point of learning?
Dr. Mortimer Adler is mentoring me through his book on learning (one of my recent reading projects).
He offers some helpful pegs on knowledge.
INFORMATION => KNOWLEDGE => UNDERSTANDING =>WISDOM
All of these things are goods of the mind, but not all are equal in value. There is an order and a dependency.
Knowledge presupposes information ... but knowledge does not presuppose understanding. It is possible, in other words, to have knowledge without understanding ... and without ever attaining wisdom.
The goal is wisdom. "Wisdom stands at the top in this sequence of the four goods of the mind. It presupposes having the information, knowledge and understanding requisite for attaining the most fundamental insights that our minds can achieve." (p.112)
The irony is that our education system seems to shoot after information and knowledge ... but not understanding and certainly not wisdom. The goal should not be teaching for high test scores ... the goal ought to be wisdom. Wisdom, by the way, is not attainable through science. Mathematical and scientific knowledge are not the sorts of things which give us understanding or wisdom. That is why I cringe when I hear politicians and pundits going on and on about science and math education as if that is the goal. Neil Postman is right when we says America has become a technolopy (a totalitation technocracy). The antidote to the deification of technology is not science and math. It is understanding leading to wisdom.
So what is the point of schooling?
"We do not need schooling for information (note: Adler wrote this prior to the age of the internet) ... But its much more important function is to prepare us for the growth of our minds in continued learning that enriches our minds not merely with more knowledge than we acquired in school, but with more understanding, and with some approach to wisdom." (p.113)
Remember that the next time your child asks you why do I have to go to school? Answer: to prepare your mind to grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom after you are out of school.
BTW: I read a great definition for wisdom yesterday: "the ability to make godly choices." I like that.
Dr. Adler offers some helpful pegs on knowledge.
Know - that : acquiring and retaining facts.
Know - what : knowing what it is, what attributes it has, what relations it stands to other things.
Know - why and wherefore : insight and understanding about the stuff in the "know-what" and "know-that" category ... this knowledge requires philosophical reflection.
Know - how : "art" and "prudence" ... art in the sense of knowing skills of how to do things or perform ... prudence in the sense of knowing how to act for our own good and the good of soceity.
The notion of prudence implies a special type of knowledge which Adler calls prescriptive and obligatory. It is the idea that we have knowledge of something that ought to be done, not just a fact about something that is ... it is the difference between the words "is" and "ought".
I find this taxonomy of knowledge helpful because it gives me pegs on which to hang my own philosophy of education.
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