My this is certainly an intriquing idea! I think that there is a difference between intelligence and wisdom and the only way to gain wisdom is to make mistakes and learn from them (I have to admit that I often make the same ones often enough to want to kick myself). Ergo you can't have the innocence of a baby and wisdom in my opinion. I think that in literature there are two characters that embody the concept you are talking about Don Quixote and Samuel Pickwick, but it was impossible to depict these loveable people without making them look ridiculous.

Babies aren't so innocent and adults aren't so wise.

adulthood is to treacherous to be innocent of mans evil intentions...as a child you have your parents to protect you from harm...but as an adult you have to protect yourself...and innocence and naivity are a weakness

Again your reasoning is flawed. Innocence such as the innocence of Adam and Eve evokes Faith. Faith means we are innocent and cannot comprehend good and eveil. I don't know if you've read about Adam and Lilith (his first wife) She couldn't take the innocence and faith and left Adam. Then Eve came into the picture. There is no way innocence and reasoning can be together - they are opposite.

You are addressing the age-old conundrum "If I only knew then what I know now".

Leaving the time-travel and sheer impossibility of your proposal aside: A baby by its very nature can't have wisdom. The wisdom it will have later in life is being programmed into it as a baby. A more likely scenario is for an adult to have the innocence of the baby. This happens quite a bit in real life. Generally we refer to those people as "mentally challenged".

Any wisdom that adults may attain is shaped by the school of hard knocks. Think of wisdom as mouldable clay, our experiences are pressures on the clay which shape it. The clay's shape at an instant in time represents the sum of its wisdom. The only way to gain wisdom is through experience.

Winstonwelles' is quite correct. Babies manipulate their keepers and surroundings in order to fulfill their most basic desires. It doesn't take long for them to learn evil. By the time they reach 24 month they are pretty good at it.

I believe it IS possible to step out of experience-programming and live in the Present Moment; when one can simply be keenly aware of WHAT IS. Then, nothing is assumed, and one expresses the Essence of oneself, instead of the "wisdom" - which after all, is largely programmed by "experience" (and may or may not be wise).

In that way you would have a being who was "innocent" of the programming, but fully aware and responsible - "able to respond" appropriately to anything that happened.

Jesus Christ is reputed to have said that unless we become as little children... so odds are that its possible to do so! What do you reckon?

Could this be partly optimism? I know that with myself I am very optimistic which I think makes me seem innocent and untouched at times. But my adult mind leads me to be a thinker and have what I believe, to be intelligence. I think that it is an awesome way to lead your life but why is it so hard for some?

I think this would be impossible to achieve. In order to maintain childlike innocence you would have to suspend all learning processes. That would prevent the development of intelligence and wisdom. Most children learn at an early age that life sucks, and that knowledge can never be taken away.

Being innocent makes people feeble minded, which in turn makes them born again Christians. A truly wise person could never be totally innocent, so this scenario is completely irrelevant.

nice words..

it can be an ideal conditon .. but we should be little realistic too.. and idealism should be supported by realism..

Regards

That sounds like a real good idea... Maybe you should get right on it.

Wisdom must offend someone, it's just wise if the result is in your favor.

Babies know nothing to begin with. This is not innocence or feeble-mindedness but simply a stage where the mind is beginning to develop. Young children can be wonderful or they can be brats. Youthfulness in itself does not impart innocence, only the appearance thereof, and even then not in all cases.

I think this philosophy simply refers to experience......we age, grow, experience and learn from it all........hence gain wisdom...