Greetings Friends,
A quick note before we begin,
We are wrapping up our Wisdom 101 Course, The Timeless Art of Leading a Life, today (15 Feb) at Noon EST. The plan is to do a brief overview and discuss our final two practices, the art of journaling and meditation. Time permitting, we’ll also discuss the upcoming course Perennial Habits (April/May). If you’re available and would like to attend — register here.
Today’s episode of In Search of Wisdom is an audio lesson on The Wisdom of Not Knowing courtesy of The Wisdom School, a new private podcast for Perennial Meditations members. You can get access to The Wisdom School and other benefits by becoming a member.
— JW
The Wisdom of Not Knowing
What can we know for sure? A curious paradox of wisdom is the need to let go of the traditional idea of knowing. Socrates famously stated all that I know is that I know nothing.
Plato, a student of Socrates, put it this way,
We do not know — neither the sophists, nor the orators, nor the artists, nor I — what the True, the Good, and the Beautiful are. But there is this difference between us: although these people know nothing, they all believe they know something; whereas, I, if I know nothing, at least have no doubts about it. As a result, all this superiority in wisdom which the oracle has attributed to me reduces itself to the single point that I am strongly convinced that I am ignorant of what I do not know.
Similarly, the philosopher Montaigne stressed the notion of not knowing. He famously lived by the maxim, “All that I know is that I know nothing, and I am not even sure of that.”
In his Essays, Montaigne explained,
If others examined themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonsense. Get rid of it. I cannot without getting rid of myself. We are all steeped in it, one as much as another, but those aware of it are a little better off — though I don’t know.
Whether we call it skepticism, not knowing, or the beginner's mind. All of these terms are not about simply knowing nothing. It's a philosophy of life about being curious and open-minded to discover the truth. The French theologian Peter Abelard said that the beginning of wisdom is found in doubting. By doubting. We come to the question, and by seeking, we may come upon the truth.
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