Martin Seligman divides life into three kinds: the good, the pleasant, and the meaningful lives.
Viktor Frankl believed that the meaningful life consisted in surrendering to something or someone greater than oneself.
How do we achieve the good and pleasant lives?
Observe, respect, and rejoice in the sacred!
Recognize and then trust insight.
…
Dependent people rely on others.
Independent people rely on themselves…
Interdependent people rely on others and themselves!
A genuine insight promises knowledge.
Existential-humanistic (E-H) psychology is the study of human existence.
Psychology in general is the science of mental processes (mind) and behavior.
Thus, E-H psychology enlarged is the science of mind and behavior within human existence.
But what is human existence with no mind? Mind is a necessary feature; for without it, we’d have no room to consider human existence to begin with.
Behavior may be said to pervade all levels of reality. In physics, we speak of the behavior of particles. Social science considers the situational behavior of persons as human beings.
Mind and behavior are thus part-and-parcel of human existence. Our science of the former two topics must serve to bolster our understanding–and, ultimately, experience–of the latter.
As minded human persons who behave situationally, how do we experience our existence?
“Bottoms-up”?
Corona might cure
What ails ye…
Why–a gentl’ swig,
*hic*
Could leadja to
Davy Jones’ Locker!
And expel ye ol’
Virus, dead in its
Belch: tracks;
Faith and wisdom
Need former for latter
Latter enables discernment
Of the former
What’s the difference?
Insight-driven knowledge comes about when information acquires meaning for us. 🙂
Such knowledge is wisdom, manifest in a form which we can represent however we so choose!
Wisdom is the unintended byproduct of using our reason courageously. It comes to the self-actualizing person who commits to what Maslow called “expressive behavior”. Such behavior for Maslow was unmotivated and unconscious: acted out purely for itself.
On the other side of expressive behavior is “coping behavior”. Coping behavior is motivated and conscious, acted out only to fulfill some “deficit need” (i.e., D-need). D-needs can only be temporarily gratified.
The wise, self-actualizing person engages in coping behavior only as a mortal, flawed agent. Such a person only behaves as such in the service of their greater expressive behavior.
What are your favorite expressive behaviors?
In yesterday’s post, I discussed wisdom’s relation to curiosity and knowledge. How does insight factor in?
Psychologically, insight is the process and outcome of crystallized, meaningful realization.
With no insight, could we have wisdom?
Let’s adopt the data scientific view of wisdom following from knowledge, where knowledge is meaningful information. Here, we have stumbled upon meaning!
Meaning is part-and-parcel of both knowledge and insight. Specifically: an insight occurs to me after exhausting my efforts trying to solve a problem. Insight presents itself as an answer worth testing at the least; at the most, it bolsters my resolve with conviction and energy.
Insight is achieved after information has been placed in its proper, solution-focused context. After ensuring that it is genuine (because the insight works for our specific purpose), we may say that it has given us knowledge.
Given the above, we know that insight is a necessary step toward attaining wisdom. Logically–therefore–clarifying the distinction between insight-driven knowledge and wisdom becomes the next, salient task.
In positive psychology, curiosity is one of 24 “character strengths”. Curiosity is here considered a strength within the higher virtue of wisdom. Being curious, a data scientist might argue, leads one to knowledge: and knowledge is the penultimate step leading to wisdom.
In the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, Adam bites the forbidden apple. This leads to his estrangement by God from the Garden of Eden. The apple contains knowledge, but was Adam wise to bite into it?
It seems difficult to argue that Adam was wise in biting the apple. One may say that he was curious–hungry for knowledge–but that failing to heed God’s warning against eating the fruit was patently foolish. Thus, while wisdom (“Sophia” in Latin) is an admirable goal of human striving, one must be mindful of the means employed to attain it.
सूरज् ਸੂਦ: ਸੂਸत्त् ᐲᓯᒼ ਸੂर्य्ੲन्द्र 