Is Evil Wisdom Possible?
I was asked a question the other day that started me thinking and I wanted to leverage the LinkedIn brain trust to get other perspectives.
The question I was asked was pretty straightforward and it pertained to whether perspective changed information. As I think about information, it should be consistently understood across the enterprise and all perspectives. This is why I am so passionate about clear, precise, accurate, and exhaustive business language definitions for data elements.
As I thought about it though, I could see where the same information could be leveraged to form different "knowledge" based on different perspectives, contexts, and backgrounds if we defined "knowledge" as "applied information".
But never being one to leave well enough alone, I then started thinking about "wisdom" and what it took to produce wisdom. Off the top of my head, I came up with experience and possibly common sense, but then I started wondering if there is a moral or ethical component to wisdom. Which brought me to the real point/question of this post...
Is it possible to truly have evil wisdom? ... or does wisdom include benevolence as a fundamental component?
Thank you for sharing Brian!
I was pondering this question today and came across this and would like to contribute my thoughts. As I understand it. I can carry on so I am restraining myself to be brief. Before writing It's like I have an answer but then as I answer there is that tiny voice that says I don't quite have the right answer if there is one. The best picture I can make of it is. A person could be wise and see that their Wisdom leads them to a conclusion about their existence being with or without purpose. They then decide from that if doing good or evil fits within this view point. As can be often the case an Evil person does not see themselves as evil quite often. I think Wisdom at its core can't be evil nor can it be good. It is only after it is acquired does a person apply it to good or evil ends. However True Wisdom, never stops asking questions. So if a person being wise persists unquestionably towards doing wrong then they essentially stop being wise. I think Wisdom can open many doors to enlightenment but it can't keep people from coming to the wrong conclusions.
Brian Farish Info=facts, knowledge=possession & comprehension of those facts, wisdom=understanding the impact of the knowledge, how it should be used for positive outcome, AND application to life. “Positive” could be just a desirable outcome for the person, including power, money, pleasure, etc. So from a worldly perspective, wisdom can be evil. From a Christian perspective, a truly positive outcome is eternal life with our Lord and doing His will. In that case, moral uprightness is a huge part of wisdom.
Plato understood wisdom as the intellectual apprehension of the forms - eternal essences - that was available, according to Socrates, to the gods, not to mortals. In the Parmenides, the older Parmenides asks the young Socrates whether there is a form for things we’d consider ignoble - a perfect form of evil for example. Socrates is stumped. The theological version of this question might be “can God (assuming the standard picture of God) will evil?” I’d say no. True wisdom can only will the good, although this doesn’t mean that it will always be perceived as good. It also assumes a certain conception of “the good” which may be at odds with our local concerns.
Information is like fire. It's not good or evil. It just is. You can use fire to heat your house or you can use it to burn down someone's home. How you use something is what matters. Not the thing itself.