Philosophy and Wisdom

The word “philosophy” literally means the “love” (philo in Greek) of “wisdom” (sophia). So, a
philosopher is somebody who loves wisdom. This, of course, leaves us with 2 important questions: What
is wisdom? And what does it mean to love wisdom?

The idea of philosophy goes all the way back to ancient Greece. It is said that the philosopher Pythagoras
in the 6th century BCE was the 1st to call himself a philosopher—a philosophos, or “lover of wisdom.” In
calling himself this, he was not claiming to be wise. Instead, he was merely saying that he was somebody
who valued or cherished wisdom.

Later, the philosopher Plato, who lived in the 5th century BCE, explored these ideas in more depth. In a
text called the Symposium, Plato claimed that a philosopher was somebody who was “between the wise
and the ignorant.” In other words, a philosopher cared about wisdom but also knew that they were
ignorant (we will see tomorrow how Plato was influenced in this by his teacher, Socrates).

Wise Thinking, Wise Living

The philosophers we will be exploring in the coming days have different approaches to the question of
what wisdom is and how we might become wise. Some philosophers are more practical, focusing more on
what we do. Others are more theoretical and grapple with questions about what we know. In this course,
we will explore both kinds of questions. We will look at how we might think more wisely and how we
might live more wisely.

A Word of Warning

By the end of this course, you should have a better idea of how some of history’s greatest philosophers
have thought about wisdom and why it matters. I can’t, of course, guarantee that you will become wise in
10 days (and as we will see, the philosophers don’t all agree on what “wisdom” means, anyway). But
what I can promise you is that through looking at these different philosophers, you will have new ways of
asking the question, “what is wisdom?”, new ways of answering the question and perhaps new ways of
thinking about what it might mean to live wisely.