The progressive elimination of “science for understanding” – or “wisdom” – from Western civilization turns the rapid and ever-accelerating accumulation of “knowledge for manipulation” into a most serious threat. As I have said in another context, “We are now far too clever to be able to survive without wisdom,” and further expansion of our cleverness can be of no benefit whatever. The steadily advancing concentration of man’s scientific interest on “sciences of manipulation” has at least three serious consequences.
First, in the absence of sustained study of such “unscientific” questions such as “What is the meaning and purpose of man’s existence?” and “What is good and what is evil?” and “What are man’s absolute rights and duties?” a civilization will necessarily and inescapably sink ever more deeply into anguish, despair, and loss of freedom. Its people will suffer a steady decline in health and happiness, no matter how high may be their standard of living or how successful their “health service” in prolonging their lives. It is nothing more nor less than a matter of “Man cannot live by bread alone.”
Second, the methodical restriction of scientific effort to the most external and material aspects of the Universe makes the world look so empty and meaningless that even those people who recognize the value and necessity of  a “science of understanding” cannot resist the hypnotic power of the allegedly scientific picture presented to them and lose the courage as well as the inclination to consult, and profit from, the “wisdom tradition of mankind.” Since the findings of science, on account of its methodical restriction and its systematic disregard of higher levels, never contain any evidence of the existence of such levels, the process is self-reinforcing: faith, instead of being taken as a guide leading the intellect to an understanding of the higher levels, is seen as opposing and rejecting the intellect and is therefore itself rejected. Thus all roads to recovery are barred.
Third, the higher powers of man, no longer being brought into play to product the knowledge of wisdom, tend to atrophy and even disappear altogether. As a result, all the problems which society or individuals are called upon to tackle become insoluble. Efforts grow ever more frantic, while unsolved and seemingly insoluble problems accumulate. While wealth may continue to increase, the quality of man himself declines. -pgs. 55-56, A Guide for the Perplexed

If we cannot achieve a real ‘meeting of minds’ with the people nearest to us in our daily lives, our existence becomes an agony and a disaster. In order to achieve it, I must be able to gain knowledge of what it is like to be ‘you’; and ‘you’ must be able to gain knowledge of what it is like to be me. Both of us must become knowledgeable in what I call the second field of knowledge. Since we know that only very little knowledge comes naturally to most of us and the acquisition of better knowledge requires effort, we are bound to ask ourselves the question: ‘What can I do to acquire better knowledge, to become more understanding of what is going on inside the people with whom I live?’
Now, the remarkable fact is that all traditional teachings give one and the same answer to this question: ‘You can understand other beings only to the extent that you know yourself.’  -pg. 82, A Guide for the Perplexed