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PAST IS PROLOGUE
The Wisdom of Foolishness
Philosophy is the love of wisdom. But sometimes, wisdom requires that we embrace our foolishness.
Philosophy is literally “the love of wisdom.” And because of this, you might think that philosophy has no time for wisdom’s opposite: foolishness. But the relationship between wisdom and foolishness is, in fact, complicated and vexed.
Throughout the history of philosophy, wisdom and foolishness have gotten tangled up in all kinds of interesting ways. Many philosophers have argued that there is a kind of wisdom in foolishness—and a kind of foolishness in what passes for wisdom.
Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was a self-confessed know-nothing. Over in China, the ancient Daoist text, the Zhuangzi, counsels us that we should give up in the pursuit of wisdom. So when thinking through what it means to be wise, we are going to have to ask what it means to be foolish.
