In the 4th video of Alain de Botton’s series Philosophy – A Guide to Happiness; he presents Michel de Montaigne, a French philosopher who singled out three main reasons for feeling bad about oneself – sexual inadequecy, failure to live up to social norms, and intellectual inferiority. Montaigne also offers practical solutions for overcoming those.
What struck me most in that video is something that I’ve heard and read before, namely that research shows that highly educated people are not “happier” than people who have not “learned” as much. Outward signals of intelligence are often different from reality. In my view, current educational systems simply do not contribute to us being wiser and happier. Montaigne was keen on an intelligence in the form of wisdom. And for that, he believed, not any kind of formal education was needed. According to him the secret lays humility, modesty, and an acceptance of one’s own intellectual limitations.
To explain the title of this blog post; why learning “VS” wisdom? Because what we are mostly taught in high-schools and universities does serve a purpose, but not the purpose of being wise and living happily. Alain asks the question why not teach kids and young adults stuff like: How to live well with other people? How to confront one’s anxiety? Ho to deal with death? Or even how to end a relationship? All aspects of life that we are SURE to face.
Alain argues that educational systems today make some people feel stupid when they’re not, and makes other people feel clever when they they’re really not. He also argues that exams, the way we are tested in educational systems, unjustly stresses learning factual information more that wisdom; and presents a few open questions that a student would have to answer on a wisdom-exam:
1. What should one do when anxious?
2. What is a good parent?
3. How can one tell if one is in love or infatuated?
4. Should one worry what other people think?
There is nothing more miserable and more proud than man 
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Check out Alain’s videos HERE. And in case you’ve read this whole blogpost, I’d appreciate it if you’d pick a question from the above 4 and answer it as a comment below..
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