Does Age Determine Wisdom?

This is something I've grappled with for a long time because of the whole "respect your elders" thing and how older people are considered wiser, and quite often feel they deserve more respect than younger people. That may have been true in tribal times when there was a very unified spiritual focus in each society, but we live in a society where that's just not the case. Just because someone is older, doesn't make them smarter, more knowledgeable or wiser. For instance, my own grandmother is very manipulative and spends most of her time trying to cause rifts in our family. Not very wise in my opinion.

So I've come to determine that wisdom does not come with age, but with knowledge and experience... and it's very possible for someone in their 20's or 30's to have more wisdom, knowledge and experience than someone in their 60's or 70's. In fact, I've met children with more wisdom than some of the adults I know.

So should age be what determines someone's level of wisdom? What do you think?

I'd say there would be an increased chance of wisdom with age, just because that possibility for accrual of experience and knowledge over time - but I agree it's not automatic wisdom to age... and probably can likewise that age can fuel greater bias and unwise methodology. It's up to the individual to make the most of their time!!!

What exactly do you mean by "wisdom"?

I could easily say no to your question, as a child can be one of the wisest beings you'll ever meet.

Proteus wrote: What exactly do you mean by "wisdom"?

The ability to know how and when apply knowledge based on experience and/or intuition, I suppose is the best way I can put it.

Naya wrote:

Proteus wrote: What exactly do you mean by "wisdom"?

The ability to know how and when apply knowledge based on experience and/or intuition, I suppose is the best way I can put it.

Adder nailed it. Those without said experiences have no basis to know when to correctly apply the lessosns learned from said experiences. Older people have at least had more time to have these experiences (aka, screw up), ponder them, learn from them (hopefully) and after that apply that knowledge 'wisely'.

Experience is one of the greatest teachers.

Edit: nice philosoraptor.

hmmm ...

It feels as though wisdom is rather like humility - if one thinks one has it, one has lost it.

Ethan is right : children can be quite wise. But what lets them be wise is that they have not yet acquired too much knowledge. Cultivating knowledge is like having a well stocked toolbox : one has all the tools to do several detailed jobs, but it is heavy to drag around. It can make us a bit sluggish ... and certainly quite grumpy.

I think it was in another thread we saw a cute phrase --

With age may come wisdom, yet it seems that the wisest aged persons have come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter what one knows ... shit happens. Do we 'happen' it, or does it happen to us ? How we deal with it may be the face of wisdom. Looking for who to blame for it and punishing them - making them pay - is the heavy side of knowledge ...

Let's mix up our analogies now, tools and tomatoes ...

The same hammer (tools) from the box can be used for construction, or to beat somebody to a bloody pulp (tomatoes). So, if the tools represent learnt knowledge, what do you use your tools for ?

It is not certain that with age comes wisdom. Perhaps with wisdom comes age ...

I would say age is necessary to obtain wisdom, but just being old doesnt mean one will be wise.

I also keep this quote in mind. For those of us that have children I think its an apt one.

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.-Mark Twain

Kids can be insightful, smart, creative, can teach you things,etc, but I dont believe that equates to wisdom. In many cases, there not aware of there potential to do and be these things, and that is in itself an indicator to me that wisdom has not been achieved.


Also, one of my earliest mentors told me that I couldnt truly consider myself a man until I reached at least fifty.

Lol, and that was knowing what kind of life I had lived until the point of when we met.

So I have no business even thinking of wisdom yet.

Alexandre Orion wrote: Perhaps with wisdom comes age ...

Something to ponder... hmmm...

I used to coin the phrase, "It's not about physical age, but mental age." With that, I meant that one could be old enough to enjoy a certain aspect in life, but lacks the mental age to handle it. I don't coin that phrase any longer because it seems a bit condescending, which I try not to be. But, with a lot of big decisions in life, one can be 15 years old and have the wisdom to make the right choices (for themself) because they've learned from others' mistakes. One can be 5 years old and be wise enough to teach a 30 year old how to be free. To me, it's a matter of perspective, knowledge, experience, inexperience, ignorance, etc.

i'm with luthien on this one...i've met people younger than myself that have suffered greatly and therefor gained wisdom beyond their years...

wisdom comes from experience, mainly, however it can also be taught by someone sagely...

and "truly remarkable, the mind of a child is" -yoda, attack of the clones-