“But there’s a difference between admiring wisdom and emulating it. That’s perhaps the best illustration of the difference between knowledge and wisdom: We know the value of wisdom. We know that narcissists should not be in charge of industries that can wipe out people’s lives — our Enrons, our BPs, our Bear Stearns. But as long as it’s possible to make money this way, we don’t fuss about it too much. We know that we should be caring for the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society, but we don’t want to pay higher taxes to do so, nor do we really want to donate much of our time or money. When it comes down to it, we greatly prefer the life of the binary, of the scale of one to 10, the things broken down to their smallest components.”
— Jessa Crispin has an excellent review of Stephen Hall’s Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience over at The Smart Set. (via Andrew Sullivan)
