Thoughts
Wisdom of Means and Wisdom of Ends
First published: 3 March 2011
For weak people there is nothing beyond obtaining what they want. Those who can do things must consider what to want.
How disappointing to discover that you won a defeat!
There are accordingly two Janus-faces of Wisdom:
One is the wisdom of means. This instrument helps to achieve with prudence your short and long-term purposes; it helps you to get what you want and to keep away from what you do not want.
The second is the wisdom of ends. It looks at the choices of lives worth living. By it you decide what has value and what is right, worth spending your life to do, to obtain or to be.
The two are quite different but often confused; some believe that if you behave and judge wisely you will obtain a wise life, certainly a good one. Others dream that a worthy vision of life, well understood, will make you wise in your deeds. Not so! If you don’t understand this distinction you may be successful, at great effort, even for a long time, at the price of spending many days of your life, just to find out late that you wanted the wrong thing. Or, you may behold the true recipe of admirable life and still live a poor one, marred by clumsiness and imprudence.