Nature versus nurture is an old debate, and the implication for whether wisdom exists is huge. If there is no nature--essential qualities--behind the way people work, there cannot be a deeper understanding of that nature. Wisdom cannot exist.
I’ll explain what I mean by nature in a couple scenarios before considering how it applies to our culture.
Why do you take your car to a mechanic instead of a hair stylist? Perhaps because it is because any old way of assembling your car will not work. The nature of car is specific, and it takes someone with appropriate understanding to reassemble it.
On the other hand, few people would have to consult an expert if asked to form a geometric shape in the sand by placing a pebble at each vertex. This task is trivial. The nature of shapes is nothing compared to the nature of a car, which is why everyone can form shapes but not necessarily fix cars.
When understood as illustrated, nature is essential to wisdom. Wisdom does not make sense without nature because there would be nothing to understand.
One final way to consider nature is its relation to proper function. Things with a complex nature will have correspondingly specified proper functions. If most any old way will do, clearly there is not a complex nature. Wisdom is then also linked to function. If most any old way will do, how could there be any understanding of proper function?
From a philosophical perspective, a practical perspective, and a functional perspective, wisdom and nature are tied together. Lose nature and you cannot have wisdom.
In the next blog, I’ll explore ways our society lives as if any old way would work, fundamentally denying nature and wisdom.
