Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
9-2016
Abstract
I argue that a necessary condition for being wise is: understanding how to live well. The condition, by requiring understanding rather than a wide variety of justified beliefs or knowledge, as Ryan and Whitcomb respectively require, yields the desirable result that being wise is compatible with having some false beliefs but not just any false beliefs about how to live well-regardless of whether those beliefs are justified or not. In arguing for understanding how to live well as a necessary condition for wisdom, I reject the view, proposed by both Ryan and Whitcomb, that subjects such as chemistry lies within the domain of wisdom. I show that the argued for condition yields the desirable result that being wise is not a common achievement, but that it is not something that can only plausibly be achieved in the modern era.
Keywords
Wisdom, Epistemology, Understanding The good life
Discipline
Epistemology | Ethics and Political Philosophy
Publication
Acta Analytica
Volume
31
Issue
3
First Page
235
Last Page
251
ISSN
0353-5150
Identifier
10.1007/s12136-015-0278-4
Publisher
Springer
Citation
RYAN, Shane.(2016). Wisdom: Understanding and the good life. Acta Analytica, 31(3), 235-251.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3654
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
http://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-015-0278-4