SECTION A
Essay
125 marks
Wisdom finds truth.
WRITE IN
90 min
1,000–1,200 words
Reading the topic
The three words suggest that truth is not found by information or cleverness alone but by wisdom, the capacity to judge, reflect and see beyond appearances and bias. The examiner expects a distinction between knowledge, intelligence and wisdom, and a reflection on truth in personal, scientific and public life.
ThesisInformation gives facts and intelligence gives answers, but only wisdom, which joins humility, reflection and moral sense, leads to truth that can guide life.
Dimensions to cover
- 1Philosophy: wisdom begins with admitting what one does not know, which keeps the search for truth open
- 2Science: the method of doubt, testing and revision is institutionalised wisdom for finding truth
- 3Information age: abundance of data and misinformation makes judgment, not access, the scarce resource
- 4Justice: judges weigh evidence and context, showing truth in law requires wisdom beyond rules
- 5Personal life: self-knowledge about one's motives and biases is the hardest truth to reach
Counter-view
- One may argue truth is objective and found by evidence, not by any special wisdom. The essay should reply that deciding which evidence counts, and resisting one's biases, is itself the work of wisdom
Open and close
- Open: Open with Socrates in the Athenian court, facing death, insisting that his only wisdom was knowing the limits of his own knowledge
- Close: Close by arguing that in an age flooded with information, a society's wisdom lies in its willingness to doubt, test and listen before it claims truth
Where marks usually go
- Writing a short, abstract essay with no examples because the topic has only three words
- Using wisdom, knowledge and intelligence as interchangeable terms
- Making truth only religious or only scientific instead of covering both
Examples that fit
- ThinkerIn Plato's Apology, Socrates says he is wiser than others only because he knows that he does not know, linking wisdom to the honest search for truth.Plato, Apology
- ThinkerIn the Kalama Sutta, the Buddha advises people not to accept claims merely because of tradition or authority but to test them through experience and reason.Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya
- HistoryGalileo was tried by the Inquisition in 1633 for supporting heliocentrism; truth eventually prevailed because evidence outlasted authority.Dava Sobel, Galileo's Daughter (1999)
- LiteratureIndia's national motto Satyameva Jayate, 'truth alone triumphs', comes from the Mundaka Upanishad, which places truth at the end of a path of inner discipline.Mundaka Upanishad; Government of India State Emblem