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[5]

These considerations therefore show that Wisdom is both Scientific Knowledge and Intuitive Intelligence as regards the things of the most exalted1 nature. This is why people say that men like Anaxagoras and Thales2 ‘may be wise but are not prudent,’ when they see them display ignorance of their own interests; and while admitting them to possess a knowledge that is rare, marvellous, difficult and even superhuman, they yet declare this knowledge to be useless, because these sages do not seek to know the things that are good for human beings.

1 See 7.3, third note.

2 Thales was the first of the Seven Wise Men: Anaxagoras belonged to a later generation.

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