Knowledge vs. Wisdom

Blessie Vergara

Post #10

Google gives these following definitions for knowledge and wisdom: Knowledge is defined as “facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education.” Wisdom is defined as “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment.” Gawanda intermingles both together in his book, “Being Mortal.”

We read a lot of memoirs in this course, and “Being Mortal” is unique in that other people’s life experiences are used as context to the point being made, rather than the author’s own life experience. From directly and indirectly witnessing these experiences, Gawanda learns things of his own. For example, seeing terminal patients made Gawande realize that providing end-of-life care is learning how to “build a health care system that will help people achieve that’s most important to them at the end of their lives (pg. 155).” This is an example of wisdom--this lesson was not something that was not learned in school or from a textbook. Earlier in the book, Gawanda cited multiple research studies on the times when people became conscious of life’s fragility. He summarized these findings, saying that “people’s goals and motives in their everyday lives shift completely” when put in a life-changing situation, not necessarily when they reach the end of their lives. This is an example of knowledge--despite being summarized in his own words, the point that he makes was derived from multiple research studies.

I noticed that the general pattern of this book is to talk about a life experience, write a few sentences about what was learned from that experience, cite research that supports or does not support that lesson, then summarize the points that were made from the research.