Sapience is closely related to the term "sophia" often defined as "transcendent wisdom", "ultimate reality", or the ultimate truth of things.[3][4][30] Sapiential perspective of wisdom is said to lie in the heart of every religion, where it is often acquired through intuitive knowing.[3][4] This type of wisdom is described as going beyond mere practical wisdom and includes self-knowledge, interconnectedness, conditioned origination of mind-states and other deeper understandings of subjective experience.[6][3][4] This type of wisdom can also lead to the ability of an individual to act with appropriate judgement, a broad understanding of situations and greater appreciation/compassion towards other living beings.[6]
The word sapience is derived from the Latin sapientia, meaning "wisdom".[33] The corresponding verb sapere has the original meaning of "to taste", hence "to perceive, to discern" and "to know"; its present participle sapiens was chosen by Carl Linnaeusfor the Latin binomial for the human species, Homo sapiens.
