Wisdom

A knowledge deity is a deity in mythology associated with knowledge, wisdom, or intelligence.

Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, it was disseminated in written form.

The earliest known wisdom literature dates back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, originating from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. These regions continued to produce wisdom literature over the subsequent two and a half millennia. Wisdom literature from Greek, Chinese, and Indian cultures started appearing around the middle of the 1st millennium BC. In the 1st millennium AD, Egyptian-Greek wisdom literature emerged, some elements of which were later incorporated into Islamic thought.

Judgement (or judgment) is the evaluation of given circumstances to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions.

In an informal context, a judgement is opinion expressed as fact. In logic, judgements assert the truth of statements. In the context of a legal trial, a judgement is a final finding, statement or ruling, based on evidence, rules and precedents, called adjudication (see Judgment (law)). In the context of psychology, judgment informally references the quality of a person's cognitive faculties and adjudicational capabilities, typically called wisdom. In formal psychology, judgement and decision making (JDM) is a cognitive process by which individuals reason, make decisions, and form opinions and beliefs.

Tabula rasa (/ˈtæbjələ ˈrɑːsə, -zə, ˈreɪ-/; Latin for "blank slate") is the idea of individuals being born empty of any built-in mental content, so that all knowledge comes from later perceptions or sensory experiences. Proponents typically form the extreme "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate, arguing that humans are born without any "natural" psychological traits and that all aspects of one's personality, social and emotional behaviour, knowledge, or sapience are later imprinted by one's environment onto the mind as one would onto a wax tablet. This idea is the central view posited in the theory of knowledge known as empiricism. Empiricists disagree with the doctrines of innatism or rationalism, which hold that the mind is born already in possession of specific knowledge or rational capacity.

The modes of persuasion, modes of appeal or rhetorical appeals (Greek: pisteis) are strategies of rhetoric that classify a speaker's or writer's appeal to their audience. These include ethos, pathos, and logos, all three of which appear in Aristotle's Rhetoric. Together with those three modes of persuasion, there is also a fourth term, kairos (Ancient Greek: καιρός), which is related to the “moment” that the speech is going to be held. This can greatly affect the speaker’s emotions, severely impacting his delivery. Another aspect defended by Aristotle is that a speaker must have wisdom, virtue, and goodwill so he can better persuade his audience, also known as ethos, pathos, and logos.

The four modes of persuasion are present in advertisements on social media, on television, in flyers, and even on billboards on the side of the road. This type of persuasion can be seen in a simple conversation with family members or friends. Those might present at least one of the aspects of persuasion: logos, with numbers; pathos, with emotional appeal; ethos, with the authority of an entity; and kairos, in the right time or with some relation with them. Another important application of persuasion can be seen in public speeches. Those can be through a process called framing and reframing. This process gets its name because speakers need to use the correct words during a speech so their audience correctly understands their message. If a speaker wants to use a specific word, slang, or metaphor, they need to do a lot of research on their audience's background to understand the values and knowledge of their audience in order to persuade effectively.

Prudence (Latin: prudentia, contracted from providentia meaning "seeing ahead, sagacity") is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue - in particular, one of the four cardinal virtues of Ancient Greek philosophy and one of the seven heavenly virtues of Christianity. Prudentia is an allegorical female personification of the virtue, whose attributes are a mirror and snake, and who is frequently depicted as a pair with Justitia, the Roman goddess of Justice.

The word derives from the 14th-century Old French word prudence, which, in turn, derives from the Latin prudentia meaning "foresight, sagacity". It is often associated with wisdom, insight, and knowledge. The virtue of prudence is the ability to judge between virtuous and vicious actions, not only in a general sense, but with regard to appropriate actions at a given time and place. Although prudence does not itself perform outward actions, and is concerned solely with internal discrimination and choice, all other virtues are regulated by it. For example, to distinguish the virtuous mean of courage from the vicious extremes of recklessness (excess) and cowardice (deficiency) is to be prudent.

Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius in the Hundred Schools of Thought era (c. 500 BCE), Confucianism integrates philosophy, ethics, and social governance, with a core focus on virtue, social harmony, and familial responsibility.

Confucianism emphasizes virtue through self-cultivation and communal effort. Key virtues include ren (仁, "benevolence"), yi (義; "righteousness"), li (禮; "propriety"), zhi (智; "wisdom"), and xin (信; "sincerity"). These values, deeply tied to the notion of tian (天; "Heaven"), present a worldview where human relationships and social order are manifestations of sacred moral principles. While Confucianism does not emphasize an omnipotent deity, it upholds tian as a transcendent moral order.

Chokmah (Hebrew: חָכְמָה, romanized: ḥoḵmā, also transliterated as chokma, chokhmah or hokhma) is the Biblical Hebrew word rendered as "wisdom" in English Bible versions (LXX σοφία sophia, Vulgate sapientia). It is the second of the ten sefirot in Kabbalah, and represents the first power of conscious intellect and subtle manifestation, emerging from Keter's pure potentiality. It embodies wisdom coming from nothingness, as highlighted in the Book of Job and the Bahir. Chokmah is the primordial point of divine wisdom that becomes comprehensible through Binah.

In Jewish mystical texts, Chokmah is described as the primordial point of divine wisdom, which shines forth from the will of God. This point remains incomprehensible until differentiated and given form in Binah. The Zohar, an essential Kabbalistic text, emphasizes Chokmah’s role in the emanation process and its association with the sense of sight, as well as an inner spiritual sense of taste that precedes and arouses sight. The interplay between Chokmah and Binah is crucial for understanding how abstract wisdom becomes concrete understanding.