The way that makes the most sense for me is intelligence is related to external learning (books, from others, from detailed study of things, etc) whereas wisdom comes primarily from internal observation (self-reflection, personal experience, situational awareness, etc.)
Ding ding ding! This is why sorcerers and dragons relay on wisdom, and mages relay on intelligence. One is born with a gift, the other is learned. And I think, at least older DnD, did it right to have a mage be able to do more through study than a sorcerer would be able to muster on providence.
I’d argue for the existence of a third stat, Reflection. This would be the ability to meta-analyze acquired information and create elastic principles out of it, allowing knowledge to be used in novel ways.
Someone can acquire all the book knowledge in the world, or learn at the feet of the wisest elders, but many otherwise brilliant people can’t apply what they’ve learned outside of the context they learned it in. Reflection turns brittle knowledge into flexible systems and concepts that can be applied elsewhere.
The downside is that reflection takes time - many times more than rote learning - and free time is the ultimate luxury in modern civilization. Our education systems try to cram as much knowledge into students’ heads as quickly as possible, then wonders why graduates are so inept when they encounter anything unfamiliar.
(And maybe that’s the real reason so many cultures venerate elders: it’s not just that they carry the accumulated experience of several decades, but that once retired they finally had the time to look back and reflect on their life.)
The way that makes the most sense for me is intelligence is related to external learning (books, from others, from detailed study of things, etc) whereas wisdom comes primarily from internal observation (self-reflection, personal experience, situational awareness, etc.)
Ding ding ding! This is why sorcerers and dragons relay on wisdom, and mages relay on intelligence. One is born with a gift, the other is learned. And I think, at least older DnD, did it right to have a mage be able to do more through study than a sorcerer would be able to muster on providence.
But lots of people take long years of reflection to gain wisdom. That’s why Clerics and Monks use wisdom.
I always thought of a hierarchy:
Data, information, knowledge, wisdom.
Intelligence being the ability to move further up that scale.
I’d argue for the existence of a third stat, Reflection. This would be the ability to meta-analyze acquired information and create elastic principles out of it, allowing knowledge to be used in novel ways.
Someone can acquire all the book knowledge in the world, or learn at the feet of the wisest elders, but many otherwise brilliant people can’t apply what they’ve learned outside of the context they learned it in. Reflection turns brittle knowledge into flexible systems and concepts that can be applied elsewhere.
The downside is that reflection takes time - many times more than rote learning - and free time is the ultimate luxury in modern civilization. Our education systems try to cram as much knowledge into students’ heads as quickly as possible, then wonders why graduates are so inept when they encounter anything unfamiliar.
(And maybe that’s the real reason so many cultures venerate elders: it’s not just that they carry the accumulated experience of several decades, but that once retired they finally had the time to look back and reflect on their life.)