Death and Wisdom - part 3

The battle rages on international philosophical forums, over my claim that only age can bring wisdom. I have included another one of the less contentious forum posts here. It concerns a few general remarks from one of the philosophers. The responses in italics are mine.

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:15 pm Post subject: Death and Wisdom

[onlyhuman wrote:]
I've always been told that good judgment comes from experience, but experience comes from bad judgement. essentially wisdom is learned from mistakes and from experience.]

Amen

[Quote:]
usually the older you are the more experience you have and thus the more wisdom. However it is still possible for someone younger than you to be more wise because of the experiences they have had in their life.

Wisdom by definition has to be holistic. The more factors that are taken into consideration the wiser the judgement will be. Thus, no matter what single extra-ordinary experience or even multiple experiences a young person may have, it is difficult if not impossible for them to evaluate its significance in the larger scheme of things - especially if one believes that everything happens for a reason. Agreed many aged may go though life and never have a significant experience, but that in itself is cause for considerable reflection. (This is why the immensely complex theology of karma is so significant, and needs sincere study by serious philosophers.) To meet a youthful old soul is rare, but it does happen.

[Quote:]
I find it disheartening when the older generation underestimate the young by saying you don't know what your talking about.

The way to avoid such underestimation is to make a conscious effort to reflect and remember what and how you thought and acted yourself at that age and make allowances for the generation gap or gaps that separate you. The young generally forget that you have been there, done that, and unfortunately have no way themselves of duplicating your effort and jumping ahead to see why you see what you see.

[Quote:]
on the other hand I also find it rude how the younger generations consider those before them fools saying they are past their time.

Lack of wisdom.