Joshua asked:

If we (philosophers) could go back in time and bring back one philosopher to help us understand what
wisdom is and how it may be attained and we brought back Plato, what would he tell us?

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Plato would say the same now as he did then, i.e. in the Symposiumhe said that wisdom is a state of
perfection and knowledge. Wisdom is not attainable, but an ideal state to be sought. Socrates was a
seeker after wisdom, trying to gain an understanding of the world through the use of reason, but he
didn't achieve much even though he identified all sorts of false opinions. There is probably more false
opinion around day — in fact, opinions and stances on issues are the "in" thing. People are also
busier and do not have time to seek wisdom, especially if it involves hanging around in the market
place deep in discussion on a daily basis. Plato would say that they should try, and if the model of
Socrates is a guide to how a wisdom-seeker should live, it is an effort which should be practised
constantly and so would not easily fit in with ordinary social living.

Pierre Hadot describes the "strangeness of the philosopher in the human world" and goes on:

One does not know how to classify him, for he is neither a sage nor a man like other men. He knows
that the normal, natural state of men should be wisdom, for wisdom is nothing more than the vision of
things as they are, the vision of the cosmos as it is in the light of reason, and wisdom is also nothing
more than the mode of being and living that should correspond to this vision. But the philosopher also
knows that this wisdom is an ideal state, almost inaccessible. For such a man, daily life, as it is
organized and lived by other men, must necessarily appear abnormal, like a state of madness,
unconsciousness and ignorance of reality. And nonetheless he must live this life every day, in this
world in which he feels himself a stranger and in which others perceive him to be one as well.

Pierre Hadot Philosophy as a Way of Life(Blackwell 1995)

Rachel Browne