WISDOM IN A CONTEXT: PROVERBS AND PHILOSOPHY
WISDOM IN A CONTEXT: PROVERBS AND PHILOSOPHY

Summary/Abstract: Folk wisdom contains a worldview and a life orientation. The meaning of proverbs is relational in character (being realized in situational relations, in a living context). Proverbs refer not so much to moral views as to moral practice, not to ethical theories and ethics of belief, but ethics of concrete responsibility, involving concrete situational ethics. Proverbs put issues relating to human morality in a socially important order and as such represent an instrument of moral orientation and unforced social regulation. Metaphorology is offered as an interpretation model for paremiology. The metaphor demands our cooperation, that is, the realization of the reference. Instead of what is not (or cannot be) named, the metaphor offers something else – an image, symbol, sign, which is then semantically realized in a meaningful participation in which reasonable possibilities are offered and room is left for personal interpretation, understanding and stance-taking. For proverbs, the manner in which their meaning is realized is also very important and very typical. A proverb only realizes its meaning through contextualisation. The true meaning of a proverb is realized in existential situations. A proverb does not prove but demonstrates, as it carries experiential evidence.

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