Wisdom

Definition (Reference books)
Etymology (György Doczi)
Knowledge for wisdom (Reference books)
Philosophy as love of wisdom (Nichomacus of Gerasa)
Intuitive reason and scientific knowledge (Aristotle)
Wisdom and problem finding (Patricia Kennedy Arlin)

Definition

[1981] Webster’s Third New International Dictionary
“The intelligent application of learning: ability to discern inner qualities and essential relationships. Insight, sagacity.”

[1983] The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
1. Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgement in the choice of means and ends.

Etymology

[1994] György Doczi, The Power of Limits
“Wisdom comes from the Indo-European root verb weid, ‘to see’, the same root from which words like ‘vision’ and ‘Veda’ come, the latter being the name of the ancient, sacred teaching of India, meaning literally ‘I have seen’.”
“Knowledge, on the other hand, originates from the root gno, ‘to know’, which gave birth also to the words ‘can’ and cunning’.” (p. 127)

Knowledge for wisdom

[1982] Encyclopaedia Britannica : “Epistemology” vol. 6
“To act wisely in the world, it is necessary to know that world and understand it; this is not to say, however, that, if a man knows, he will inevitably use the knowledge wisely.” (p. 925)

Philosophy as love of wisdom

Nichomacus of Gerasa, Introduction to Arithmetic, Great Books of the Western World, 1990
“The ancients, who under the leadership of Pythagoras first made science systematic, defined philosophy as the love of wisdom. Indeed the name itself means this, and before Pythagoras all who had knowledge were called ‘wise’ indiscriminately - a carpenter, for example, a cobbler, a helmsman, and in a word anyone who was versed in any art or handicraft. Pythagoras, however, restricting the title so as to apply to the knowledge and comprehension of reality, and calling the knowledge of the truth in this the only wisdom, naturally designated the desire and pursuit of this knowledge philosophy, as being desire for wisdom.”
(Book One, Chapter I, p. 599)

Intuitive reason and scientific knowledge

Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea, Great Books of the Western World, 1990
“practical wisdom ... is a true and reasoned state of capacity to act with regard to the things that are good or bad for man.” (Book VI, 1140b, p. 389)
“... wisdom must plainly be the most finished of the forms of knowledge. It follows that the wise man must not only know what follows from the first principles, but must also possess truth about the first principles. Therefore wisdom must be intuitive reason combined with scientific knowledge - scientific knowledge of the highest objects which has received as it were its proper completion.” (Book VI, 1141a, p. 390)

Wisdom and problem finding

[1990] Patricia Kennedy Arlin, Wisdom: the art of problem finding, in Robert J. Sternberg ed., Wisdom
"The role of the question in both problem finding and in wisdom is only one of several features that problem finding and wisdom have in common." "There are other features . ... These include
1. the search for complementarity;
2. the detection of asymmetry in the face of that which appears symmetrical and in equilibrium;
3. openness to change: its possibility and its reality;
4. a pushing of the limits, which sometimes lead to a redefinition of those limits;
5. a sense of taste for problems that are of fundamental importance;
6. the preference for certain conceptual moves." (p. 231)

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