Demonstrate wisdom through experience and sensitivity.

 Demonstrate wisdom through experience and sensitivity.

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The most important formula of knowledge in medieval Europe was


Knowledge = Bible × logic.


To know the answer to some important question, people read the Bible and understood the exact meaning of the text with their own logic.


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The Scientific Revolution proposed a different formula for knowledge.


Knowledge = empirical data × mathematics


The formulas of knowledge presented by science have led to groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy, physics, medicine, and many other disciplines. However, this formula has one major drawback: it cannot address questions of value and meaning.


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Human society cannot survive without such value judgments.


Here, humanism offered an alternative. As humans gain confidence in themselves, a new formula for acquiring ethical knowledge has emerged.


Knowledge = Experience × Sensitivity


If we want to know the answer to any ethical question, we need to bring out our inner experiences and observe them with keen sensitivity. To do this, we as seekers of knowledge must accumulate years of experience and sharpen our sensitivity so that we can accurately understand those experiences.



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What exactly does 'experience' mean?


It is not empirical data. Experience is not made up of atoms, electromagnetic waves, proteins, or numbers.


Experience is a subjective phenomenon made up of sensations, emotions, and thoughts. My experience at a particular moment consists of everything I sense (heat, pleasure, tension, etc.), all the emotions I feel (love, fear, anger, etc.), and every thought that pops into my mind.


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What is sensitivity?


It pays attention to sensations, emotions, and thoughts.


It is accepting the effect that sensations, emotions, and thoughts have on you.


I must always be open to new experiences, and accept the changes they cause to my views and actions as well as to my personality.



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Experience and sensibility are linked in an endless loop, reinforcing each other.


You cannot experience anything without sensitivity, and you cannot develop sensitivity without experiencing a variety of things.


Sensitivity is not an abstract aptitude that can be developed by reading books or taking lectures. It is a practical skill that only ripens and matures only when used in practice.


You cannot experience anything without having the necessary sensitivity, and you cannot develop a sensitivity without much experience.


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The same is true of other aesthetic and ethical knowledge.


We are not born with a perfect conscience. In life, you hurt, give and receive sympathy.


Attention sharpens moral sensibility, and accumulated experiences become a valuable source of ethical knowledge about what is good, what is right, and who I am.


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Thus, humanism sees life as a gradual process of internal change from ignorance to enlightenment through the means of experience.


The ultimate goal of humanistic life is the full expression of knowledge through a wide range of intellectual, emotional and physical experiences.


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Distilling the broadest possible life experience into wisdom. There is only one apex in life, and that is the state in which we judge everything about human beings by feeling.


- Wilhelm von Humboldt

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