Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Wisdom and Intuition of God

In common parlance, usually entailed by the Wisdom vs. Foolishness contrast is a Knowledge vs. Ignorance contrast, often expressed in terms of age and experience vs. youth and inexperience.  So, in one of the two predominant modern Moral doctrines, Kantianism, Wisdom is no factor, i. e. the Kantian principle is independent of any such conditions.  In the other, Utilitarianism, such conditions are irrelevant to the calculation, which it merely describes, regardless of how wise or foolish the choices involved, even though Mill sometimes struggles to refrain from normative judgment, e. g. his 'higher' vs. 'lower' distinction.  In contrast, degree of Knowledge is a factor in Spinoza's doctrine, in which Knowledge is more rigorous defined than it is in common parlance.  So, that doctrine can be conceived as promoting Wisdom, and, if so, as surpassing that of even King Solomon.  For, according to the doctrine, maximum Wisdom is achieved in the Intuition of oneself as a Mode of an immanent God.  But Solomon's Wisdom must fall short of that degree--for his God is transcendent, and, so, his Wisdom could never include such knowledge, regardless of how much else of his God that he knows.

No comments:

Post a Comment