I couldn't see how the philosophy I d been reading and wisdom were related. The second thing the book explained was that philosophical systems could be broken down into three basic components. All philosophies deal with ontology, epistemology, and ethics. Now ethics that's a familiar word but the other two are not as common. Ontology deals with questions of Being.
Epistemology deals with questions of Knowing.
The Complete Idiots Guide to Philosophy said that every philosophical systems is going to deal with questions like theses. Questions about existence, knowledge and ethics. But usually one of those questions is of primary importance and the way that question gets answered will determine how the other two get answered. For example, a philosopher might start with ontology and say that Life has evolved on our planet because all the biochemical conditions just happened to be right, that human knowledge is just a further development of that biochemical process and there's no reason or meaning to life and therefore no ethical standard. So all you biochemical units just enjoy yourselves for as long as you can until your unit gets old, runs down, and quits working.