Foundation of Wisdom

In this piece, we will establish foundation of wisdom and agree on a definition.

Preliminary: Let's suppose we are random individuals from humanity.

I exist. I engage in various activities such as seeing, hearing, reading, writing, and interacting with others. I've naturally developed preferences and relationships. However, I know my abilities and resources are limited. I have roles like being a child, parent, sibling, or friend. I engage with society through interactions and using media, shaped by my experiences, beliefs, and nationality. You're like me. You think, feel, and have preferences. You're also limited by resources and circumstances. We may share roles like being parents or friends. You have your beliefs and relationships too. While we're similar, our backgrounds and responses to situations may differ. Others are like us - similar and different. You, others, and I are all members of humanity.

Searching for the foundation of Wisdom from the dictionary:

Wisdom is often defined as a collection of experiences and knowledge that lead to good judgment. However, this definition leaves much dissatisfaction. What constitutes good judgment? Is experience and knowledge universally applicable to all of humanity? Why should we seek and desire wisdom? These are all open-ended questions, but answers follow once we establish the foundation.

Proposition 1: Common wisdom requires agreement on what is a good judgment.

I assume that you and I are individuals from various walks of life. Suppose that there is such a thing as common wisdom. If we discuss common knowledge leading to good judgments, or common wisdom, then we must agree on what good judgment is. If we agree at all, that means we share common reasoning, whether it is rational or emotional.

Proposition 2: The root of common wisdom must be both common and superior desire.

Good judgment means a good process, a good goal, and good expected outcomes related to the judgment. Suppose that our assessments of better judgment for you and me are different; then, we cannot agree that your wisdom is wise from my perspective and vice versa. If there is any common wisdom, we must agree that the process, goal, and expected outcome are wise for both of us. We must share something we both value greatly, and good judgments are judgments that help us enjoy something we both agree to like. Furthermore, let's suppose that we have a set of common likes. If your judgment is based on something that I believe is less important than other common likes, then I cannot consider you wise, and vice versa. If we agree that you and I are wise in judging something, then we must try to identify the most superior desire that is common between us, and we must anchor our objective of wisdom there. The common and superior desire is yet to be found.

Proposition 3: Love is a compelling candidate as a foundation of wisdom.

I discover that the rational and emotional state of being called love is as close as it gets to the common and most superior desire that you and I can agree on, hence a convincing candidate for the foundation of good judgment and wisdom. If it were the foundation of wisdom, then the following statement must be true between you and me: "Wisdom is defined as a collection of experiences and knowledge that helps me to truly love myself and my loved ones." If this statement is deemed false, then one must have a common desire between you and me that triumphs over true love. In other words, you and I need to convince ourselves that "a judgment of pursuing (another candidate common desire) is wiser than pursuing truly loving yourself and loving loved ones."

The proposition proving true love is the foundation of wisdom is impossible to prove, but it is a strong foundation, and a counteroffer is also hard to find. At least at PieceWiser, we are going to assume that it is an Axiom.

Axiom 1: "Wisdom is defined as a collection of experiences and knowledge that helps me to truly love myself and my loved ones."

Corollary 1: "A wise decision is a decision that helps me best love myself and my loved ones."

Corollary 2: "A wise person is a person who makes decisions and acts according to the truest love for oneself and loved ones."

Axioms are a set of statements that are considered facts without proofs, mainly because there is no good way to prove. The foundation of wisdom must be the most superior interest of the set of humanity's common interests, and it will be impossible to examine all possible common interests of humanity, let alone coming up with a comprehensive set. However, I won't be lazy and fail to defend the axioms. Here is my best attempt to show that true love is both a rationally and emotionally appealing candidate:

Suppose that I am a person of any background and time.

I didn't pledge or educate myself to like something, but I developed likes - it must be innate in me to like something so effortlessly. I discovered that enjoying what I like requires me to expend resources I value. I discovered that I avoid things I dislike and expend resources I value to avoid them. I've come to like you. Time spent with you is precious. This emotion grows stronger, and I find myself wanting to spend time with you because I like you so much, even if it means giving up some fundamental resources of my life like time, body, mind, and finance.

I didn't strive to discover love, nor did I actively learn about the feeling of love through reading or observing. Love discovered me before I knew what it was. I disliked seeing you in pain and found myself wanting to protect you, even if it meant enduring hardships, and I feel that spending time with you is one of the happiest moments of my day. Sometimes, seeing or imagining you being happy makes me even happier. Imagining you in distress or pain pains me. On good days, you give meaning to my days, and if possible, I want to spend eternity with you in such joy. But because you and I are finite, and our bodies and minds deteriorate over time, I want to spend time with you and share joyous emotions for as long as possible, even if it means consuming my finite resources to ensure your well-being. I want to call this emotion love, and I did not engineer this feeling I find.

Discovering love for you led me to discover love for myself. I love the part of myself that loves you so much. By loving you, I've naturally come to love myself more, and I understand the meaning of loving myself. I find myself unable to help but love myself completely. Since we are both finite, I think it's good to love ourselves and each other to ensure our well-being and happiness. What I want for myself is what I want for you. I may not fully understand the emotions you feel, but I imagine and wish for your happiness, well-being, health, and success. Above all, I want to experience and express the overflowing love you feel for a long time. I hope you live to truly love yourself as well as love your loved ones.

Love is natural, it transcends time, place, and culture, and it easily triumphs over substantial proportions of our fundamental life resources like time, body, mind, and finance. Often, a sane rational and emotional mind is willing to trade all fundamental life resources to be able to truly love oneself and their loved ones. However, no rationally and emotionally sane person is willing to give up their true love for oneself and others.

Once axiom 1 is assumed, then it is easy to follow:

Corollary 3: Wisdom transcends time, settings, and culture, as long as true love does.

Then finally, we arrive at a useful conclusion that

Corollary 4: Wisdom applies to you and I.

Keywords: foundation, wisdom, axiom, true love.

Suggested previous piece: Introduction to PieceWiser

Suggested next piece: wise valuation