Our ancient teachers never lacked respect for human wisdom; in fact, they respected and elevated it, and inscribed it on the slates of their hearts: Did they not state, "All who say a wise thing, even from among the nations, is called wise" and "I will destroy the wise men of Edom"?
The most prominent of them all in this case - and "his words are comely" – was the saintly Rabbi Yehuda Halevy, in his wonderful and enlightened book, the Kuzari. There he speaks in clear, pleasant and sacred language to clearly illustrate that the sages of the Talmud were proficient in wisdom of all types, and that they explained numerous practical and theoretical obscure issues according to general [secular] wisdom.
If the Talmudic sages did so in their time, and Rabbi Yehuda Halevy did so in his generation, what are we, orphaned by orphans, to say? … The need to apply general wisdom and to reject foolishness grows, as does the need to minimize damage and to be more practical.