Can wisdom or common sense be taught?
Offline How do you make someone wise when they display frequent ignorance? For example, some down to earth psychiatrists are good at dispelling religious delusion just by pointing out the irrationality of certain beliefs (belief in fake fossils, Noah's flood, etc). Military training tends to strip away irrationality and naivety and replace it with realism. The problem is these are limited to certain situations- people rarely get the chance to be yelled at in military training, and psychiatric consultation is only sought when someone feels they genuinely have a problem with their life. So is there some way to create people who can instill rationality in others just by talking in terms of common sense, dispelling myths and falsehoods? Imagine a series of counselors whose job it is to make people more wise, more practical, and less reliant on faith and wishful thinking. Could such a profession exist, could it be widespread and accepted as legitimate, and how would it get started as an organization?
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The biggest problem with this is that it would be seen as brainwashing. Considering the things being done go against the wishes of the religious majority, a stop would be put to it and people "deprogrammed". I put that in inverted commas as in reality deprogramming is just reprogramming, and brainwashing happens in every aspect of our lives, every new experience adds to our programming.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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Would opposition be effective enough? Scientology hasn't made a huge dent in psychiatry. You could at least make self help books/CDs that people have to seek out on their will.
Well, one must believe something is rational before they decide what is irrational. Wisdom is essentially ability to find flaw in illogic, or to see through lies. Which is how one determines what is and is not rational. Intellect is the ability to create and craft ideas, whereas wisdom finds flaw in it.
Think of the absent-minded strategist thinking up grand plans to defeat an enemy army as intelligent, but the General knowing from experience it won't work because the enemy isn't dumb enough to fall for it as wise. Wisdom isn't necessarily experience in itself, but it comes from it, or from a form of it. I seem older than I am because of (apparent) Wisdom. But, how old am I as opposed to how old I seem? Well, I've been told I'm anywhere 16-70. I'm younger than 70 by far. I am older than 14 though, just to help. Now see, people assume I am wise because of experience.
I have no idea if I am or am not wise, I just see idiocy everywhere and despise it. But, I'm not that old, and clearly don't have as much experience in life as someone three times my age. But, I've been compared to be wiser than people three times my age, and even said to be wiser than them by people three times my age. Now, where did I become wise? Well, wisdom comes from knowledge, which is gained from intelligence, or just basic understanding.
Intellect is your ability to learn, wisdom is your ability to sift through the crap and non-crap of what you learn. Wisdom is essentially being able to know what to do. So, why am I wise? I have experience. But I'm not that old. My wisdom, or rather pseudo-wisdom, because I can not be sure it is wisdom, comes from one thing, and one thing only. I learn from other's mistakes rather than my own. I observe all I can, and read all I can. I learn. Constantly. I make notes not to do certain things. I don't do those things. I don't assume things intentionally. I do what's best in the end. I think things through logically, trying to find the best course of action through using experience I picked up from people who make mistakes. In this way, I make less mistakes and thereby have time to gain more knowledge and learn even more. So, how old am I? Doesn't matter.
So, to answer your question, it's all on what one believes is wisdom. One must always assume there is the micro-percent chance they may be wrong, no matter how "right" there are, because reality is what is "apparent" and not what is. Such councelors could not exist because it would be akin to brainwashing. people find wisdom through experience or learning from others as I did. I learn it, but I did it entirely by accident. I was just the snot-nosed brat intelligent enough to realize it's better to let the idiots make mistakes and learn to not do what they do.
Anyway, because such a profession shouldn't exist, it wouldn't be widespread, but it could be organized.
Just look at communism.
EDIT: Also, as Einstein said..."Common sense isn't all that common". He also said "Common sense is a group of prejudices gathered by age 18 viewed as true." To paraphrase.
-IiB
I believe a number of totalitarian regimes had them. Seriously, this would be an incredibly bad idea.
Freedom of religious belief is an inalienable right. Stuffing that belief down other people's throats is not.