Wisdom and Responsibility

I recently came across this good quote from Michael Michael Fox’s recently published second volume on Proverbs in the Anchor series. This series (and this volume) is critical but there are good gems to be found here. His essays at the end of the commentary are particularly interesting. Whether or not he intends it, Fox sounds a good bit like Augustine in this good quote:

The upshot of this principle is an extraordinary assertion of individual responsibility. Each person constantly faces moral choices, with only wisdom to guide him. But wisdom is universally available (1:20-29; 8:1-4; 9:4-6); it is directly before the eyes of the one who looks carefully (17:24), and if one lacks wisdom, it is because he has chosen to spurn it (1:7b, 22, 29), to desire evil (21:10), and to love mindlessness (1:22). Sin is folly, and folly is ignorance, and ignorance is no excuse. It is itself a moral failing, the root of all failure. (p 944 )