In Homer’s Odyssey, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, assumed the form of Mentor, an old man, to give advice to Telemachus as he sought to find his father Odysseus. From that time, the term “mentor” has meant one who passes wisdom on to others and usually carries with it the connotations of older age. Even in our common understanding, we typically associate wisdom with the elderly and foolishness with youth. While these associations are often true, the correlation is not absolute. Age does not guarantee wisdom, and those who are young can possess wisdom.
As the major premise for this blog, it is first necessary to examine how wisdom and young age can coexist. In the end, it should be seen that one who is young can obtain, possess, and communicate wisdom to others. This does not mean that one should disregard the elderly; on the contrary, those who have lived longer generally are much wiser. The point of this post is merely to explain that there are exceptions to the general rule.
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle divides wisdom into two categories: intellectual wisdom and practical wisdom. Sophia, or intellectual wisdom, pertains more to the theoretical and the high and lofty. Phronesis, or practical wisdom, is wisdom one encounters in everyday life, much like common sense. Many of the things contained in these essays involve both sophia and phronesis.
Sophia or theoretical knowledge can be obtained at any age. Someone who has not experienced a situation may still have theoretical knowledge about that situation. In fact, education as a whole often involves imparting theoretical wisdom so that the pupil may use that knowledge when they do experience the situation. Sometimes, the “hands-on experience” one receives in education is merely practiced theoretical knowledge. The point here is that anyone, so long as they have the mental capacity, may have theoretical knowledge of a subject without experiencing it. It is possible then for an extremely young person to have and communicate theoretical wisdom.
Phronesis, on the other hand, is a different matter. Practical wisdom requires more than head knowledge. Some may argue that practical wisdom requires experience, and that one who has not lived very long cannot be expected to have enough experience to speak definitively of phronesis. The two main premises within this argument are that practical wisdom is achieved through experience and that experience is tied to age. While there is some truth to both of these statements, neither is universally or exclusively true.
First, experience alone is not enough to guarantee practical wisdom. While experience is often the best of teachers, it cannot ensure an attentive pupil. Many may experience a situation multiple times and yet fail to gain wisdom from those experiences. Spend thrifts that constantly fall into debt, repeat criminals, and the imprudent that get taken in by scam after scam are examples of people who have experience but not practical wisdom. In fact, it is human tendency to return to previous errors. Though experience is vital to practical wisdom, it is not enough on its own.
If experience is not enough, then there must be other ways to obtain practical wisdom. One way, of course, is to be an attentive pupil and learn from one’s experiences. Even different personalities have natural tendencies in this area. Some personality types require only one experience to learn from the situation while others may require several times in order to learn. Some children need only be reprimanded once, and the lesson is learned. Others require extensive efforts by the parents to bring them into line. Attentiveness is not only something rooted in personality; it is also tied to the will. An individual who looks to learn from their mistakes will obtain practical wisdom much sooner than the individual who forgets the past and falls into the same mistakes. Attentiveness to one’s experiences is necessary for those experiences to be of any worth.
Another way exists to obtain practical wisdom: learning from the experiences of others. Perceptiveness is key to gaining practical wisdom. One may observe the successes and failures of another and analyze the means by which they succeeded or failed, thereby obtaining practical wisdom for that situation. Watching how one married couple manages to love each other into old age and another fails to last even a few years is key to learning how to become a good spouse even if one is not already married. Now, of course, merely perceiving is not enough to know all of the intricacies of a particular situation. Observing a married couple does not make one privy to all of the problems that can come with marriage, yet it greatly aids the observer in obtaining practical wisdom.
Experience alone is not enough to obtain practical wisdom. The pupil must be willing to learn for experience to be of any use. In addition, one may learn by observing the experiences of others. In the end, an attentive pupil who is observant of others’ experiences without having fully experienced the situations for themselves may have more practical wisdom than those who have more experience. Thus, the first major premise fails to include all the ways practical wisdom may be obtained.
The second premise is much easier to address. Though experience is typically tied to age, it is certainly not always the case. It is possible for one individual to have lived for many years with a sheltered life and have less experience than one who is much younger. It is often said that those who have had rougher childhoods are wise for their age because they have seen and experienced more. In another way, how one applies one’s self to what they encounter greatly adds to the experience. Thus, a soccer player who has played since he was a child may have less experience than a player who has only played for a few years and has exerted himself to a much greater extent. Though experience is generally tied to age, that trend is not absolute, and the second premise fails to be universally true.
Since it is possible to obtain practical wisdom through observation as well as through many experiences at a young age, then phronesis though generally tied to age is not of necessity. A young individual may then have something valid to say in regards to practical wisdom that much older people would benefit from hearing. This fact, coupled with theoretical wisdom that can be learned at a young age, means that even one who has not lived many years may have something reasonable to say on many issues.
Even this discussion so far, however, has only dealt with the theoretical side of wisdom. While it has been proved that wisdom may be obtained at a young age, it has not been demonstrated to have occurred in the past. As the previous analysis would indicate, even though the majority of great thinkers and writers of history have been older, some of the best have been young.
At only the age of thirty-five, Alexis de Tocqueville published what has become universally recognized as one of the premier discussions of democracy of his time and even up to the present. Democracy in America continues to have much to say about democracies, their benefits, their weaknesses, and their tendencies. Even one who was yet thirty when he toured the United States had much to say that the great thinkers of our day recognize as wisdom.
Another example is Jane Austen. At the young age of twenty, she wrote Pride and Prejudice, which has been recognized as an insightful and deep discussion of her contemporary society. Her analysis of marriage, the gentleman, propriety, and civility continues to provide a basis for discussion even in modern circles. The depth of the characters as well as the richness of the story would require a great understanding of her society that even a woman twice her age would be happy to posses.
The examples given above are not the only ones in history. Young people throughout the centuries have been able to communicate deep thoughts that would require both theoretical and practical wisdom. This is not to say that all young people are equal in wisdom to de Tocqueville or Austen. As already stated, these people are the exception to the general rule. They, however, demonstrate that a young individual may have much to say of value, and it is unreasonable and foolish to refuse to hear what a person has to say merely because they are young.
Consequently, when reading what a young person has written, one ought to examine it just as he would examine any other writing, recognizing that wisdom is independent of age even though there is a general correlation. Wisdom is wisdom, and truth is truth no matter the source. Wisdom can be found in both the words of the elderly and in the reflections of a young man.
