On Wisdom
B. A. RusseU
I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as far as possible, from the tyranny of the here and the now. We cannot help the egoism of our senses. Sight and sound and touch are bound up with our own bodies and cannot be made impersonal. Our emotions start similarly from ourselves. An infant feels hunger or distress, and is unaffected except by his own physical condition. Gradually with the years, his horizon widens, and, in proportion as his thoughts and feelings become less personal and less concerned with his own physical states, he achieves growing wisdom. This is of course a matter of degree. No one can view the world with complete justice, and if anyone could, he would hardly be able to remain alive. But it is possible to make a continual approach towards justice, on the one hand, by knowing things somewhat remote in time or space, and, on the other hand,by giving to such things their due weight in our feelings. It is this approach towards justice that constitutes growth in wisdom.
Can wisdom be taught? And, if it can, should the teaching of it be one of the aims of education? I should answer both these questions in the affirmative. I do not think that knowledge and morals ought to be too much separated. Even the best technicians should also be good citizens: and when I say
"citizens," I mean citizens of the world and not of this or that sect or nation. With every increase of knowledge and skill,wisdom becomes more necessary, for every such increase strengthens our capacity of realizing our purposes, and therefore strengthens our capacity for evil, if our purposes are unwise. The world needs wisdom as it has never needed it before: and if knowledge continues to increase, the world will need wisdom in the future even more than it does now.
论智慧
我认为智慧的实质在于解放，它要尽可能地把人们从目前的独裁统治中解放出来。我们禁不住要陷入感官的自我主义之中。视觉、听觉和触觉与我们的身体密不可分；不能抛开个体而存在。同样，我们的感情差不多在我们出生时就开始有了。一个婴儿感到饥饿或不适，除了受到自身条件的影响外，别无其他原因。随着年纪的增长，他的.视野开阔了，与此相适应，他的思想感情变得不再个人化，与其自身的身体状况的联系也了，此时，他开始增长智慧。当然，这只是一定程度的增长。没有人能够以毫无偏见的眼光来观察世界；假若有人能做到这一点，则他几乎不可能存在于这世界上。但是，朝公正的方向不断努力是有可能的，一方面，人们可以了解距今较远时空的事情，另一方面，在我们的情感中给予它们应有的份量。正是这种朝着公正努力的方法才促使智慧的增长。
智慧是否可以传授?若可以，传授如何获得智慧是否应成为教育的目的之一?我对于这两个问题的回答是肯定的。我认为知识和道德不应被完全分开。即使是最好的技工也应是个好公民：而我所指的“公民”是指世界公民，而不是一个国家或地区的公民。随着技术和知识的每一次增长，智慧变得越来越重要，因为知识和技术的每一次增长都能增强我们实现目标的能力，因此，若我们的目标不明智，它就能增加我们作恶的能力。当今的世界比以往任何时候都需要智慧。若知识继续增长，则在未来，世界比现在更需
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