Socrates said “The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing”, which I have found to be abundantly true. Yet the dictionary definition of wisdom is just as confusing.  Wisdom can be :

• the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise
• the fact of being based on sensible or wise thinking
• the body of knowledge and experience that develops within a specified society or period

This was particularly apparent when studying Homeopathy. Finding the appropriate remedy seemed extraordinarily easy after taking a short course for home use. A dozen remedies for a dozen or so children’s ailments, what could be easier?  A little knowledge is useful, but the trick is in turning it into wisdom. After four years study of Classical Homeopathy, it was a little more difficult and took a lot longer to find remedies for clients.  There are thousands of remedies that are available and it takes considerable skill to find a remedy that exactly matches the symptoms that a client may present with. My lecturer taught us that the second best remedy is the one we have in our dispensary. I’m sure it is the same with other disciplines of studies.

But how do we know what we know and can we be certain that what we know is correct?

I’m sure the wisdom is in knowing that we know nothing.  Perspective will change how something is viewed and this may be through the mirror of time or through research or philosophy. There are people who would argue that Homeopathy cannot possibly work due to current scientific/rational thinking – that it is a “placebo effect”, yet thousands of people who have taken remedies for ailments and have been cured would vehemently disagree. It is within the realms of possibility that one day science will prove that Homeopathy is curative and acknowledge it as a legitimate form of medical treatment.

Scientific thinking has much changed since the time of Galileo, DaVinci and even Einstein. Theories that seemed improbable in those times have been proven to be true and so it is necessary to keep an open mind to the possibility Hahnemann came up with a curative method before his time.