Languages of wisdom. Typology and examples from different times and cultures

Abstract

The article focuses on wisdom as a particular ‘anonymous discourse’ in the various varieties that make up the typology of wisdom languages. The following overlapping types are distinguished: (1) wisdom sayings without justication – wisdom sayings with justi–cation, (2) wisdom based on optimism and wisdom based on pessimism, (3) wisdom as intellectual cognition and wisdom as moral instruction, (4) wisdom from knowledge and as knowledge, wisdom that follows from knowledge of knowledge limits and wisdom as ignorance that follows from knowledge of ignorance. Examples are given from the Bible, European and Chinese traditions, past and present, and fiction, including Leo Tolstoy, Karl May, and St. Exupery.