And doubt as I said earlier is the beginning and the defining condition, but not the content, of wisdom. Wisdom is an active thing which occurs in the course of a life which is understood rather than thought, which is lived before it is reflected upon, which stands in the morning sun and screams all its consequences to the receding galaxies, which simply is because it does, and simply does because it is. I should take this opportunity to attempt to explain a point I made in an earlier issue, on the distinction between complication and complexity. As truth is prior to reason so living is prior to thought. Experience is prior to the propositions in which it is subsequently embodied or merely buried.
Life is the ground of philosophy and the subject of history.
And it is prior to both. Life is complex in that it ramifies itself into the world. But a ramification is not a complication. A complication is a matter of detail. A complicated situation is one in which ever further details elaborate on one another to confusion.