In a sense, knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows, for details are swallowed up in principles. The details for knowledge... will be picked up ad hoc in each avocation of life, but the habit of the active utilization of well-understood principles is the final possession of wisdom.
Alfred North Whitehead
As Wisdom Grows
Topic: Wisdom & Knowledge
“In a sense, knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows, for details are swallowed up in principles. The details for knowledge, which are important, will be picked up ad hoc in each avocation of life, but the habit of the active utilization of well-understood principles is the final possession of wisdom.“
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
Humanism, Arts and Sciences
The Rhythmic Claims of Freedom and Discipline
Whitehead, Alfred North. The Aims of Education and Other Essays. New York: New American Library, 1929, p. 46 ["The Rhythmic Claims of Freedom and Discipline"].
Alfred North Whitehead
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Alfred North Whitehead, The Rhythmic Claims of Freedom and Discipline
Stephen R. Covey on Principles
Wisdom is the child of integrity–being integrated around principles. And integrity is the child of humility and courage. In fact you could say that humility is the mother of all the virtues because humility acknowledges that there are natural laws or principles that govern the universe. They are in charge. We are not. Pride teaches us that we are in charge. Humility teaches us to understand and live by principles, because they ultimately govern the consequences of our actions. If humility is the mother, courage is the father of wisdom. Because to truly live by these principles when they are contrary to social mores, norms, and values takes enormous courage….
–Stephen R. Covey [The 8th Habit–From Effectiveness to Greatness] pages 296-297.
Additional Alfred North Whitehead Quotes
“The essence of education is that it be religious. Pray, what is religious education? A religious education is an education which inculcates duty and reverence. Duty arises from our potential control over the course of events. Where attainable knowledge could have changed the issue, ignorance has the guilt of vice. And the foundation of reverence is this perception, that the present holds within itself the complete sum of existence, backwards and forwards, that whole amplitude of time, which is eternity.”
–Alfred North Whitehead [The Aims of Education (1929)].
“That knowledge which adds greatness to character is knowledge so handled as to transform every phase of immediate experience.”
–Alfred North Whitehead [The Aims of Education (1929)].
“Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science. Its principles may be eternal, but the expression of those principles requires continual development.”
–Alfred North Whitehead [Science and the Modern World (1925)].