Morosoph (Word For The Week)
A morosoph is a philosophical or learned or educated fool.
How can the word learned or educated be used to describe a fool? Isn’t that an irony? Shouldn’t it be impossible to be a fool, yet learned?
For all the good that education does, it has not exactly been a panacea for foolishness.
I think a major reason for this is that people often mix-up ignorance and foolishness. They substitute fact for wisdom.
Education teaches you facts, but it doesn’t teach you how to think. It can make you brilliant, but that doesn’t necessarily make you wise.
My biggest problem with education is how it is churning out smart psychopaths.
We are witnessing more people who are book smart but emotionally and socially stunted.
Their intelligence, rather than building a bridge to connect with others, is creating a moat that separates them from others.
Wisdom is defined as the discretionary use of knowledge for the greatest good.
It is also the ability to apply relevant knowledge insightfully, especially to different situations from that in which the knowledge was gained.
Finally, it is the ability to make a decision based on the combination of knowledge, experience, and intuitive understanding.
A morosoph is more interested in gathering data, facts, and information. They want the numbers, but not the story behind the numbers.
It is why technocrats tend to make decisions that lack empathy.
A morosoph will go ahead with a plan because theoretically, it should work, although every experienced person tells him otherwise.
When it fails, they will lay the blame on everyone but themselves.
Transiting from being a morosoph to being wise involves gaining emotional and social intelligence.
It requires seeking to understand people’s reasons for their decision, as well as the other costs and implications of every decision made.
Listen to people who oppose you and try to understand where they are coming from. Your perspective might be right, but it is probably not the only right one.
Whenever you realize that the alternative is better than yours, or its human or emotional cost is less, go for that.
Do not be a morosoph who cares more about being right than being kind.
At the end of the day, every decision has more cost than its financial one. If you are not paying it, someone else is.
Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator, and Creative Writer.
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