Who were the wise in the Buddha's discourses? When the Buddha said: "Censured or praised by the wise?" In a few suttas, when talking about right actions, who exactly were those wise?
According to the commentaries:


  buddhādīhi viññūhi pasatthattā viññuppasatthāni


"The state of being praised by the wise, starting with the Buddha, [makes them] praised-by-the-wise."

In general, the word viññū just means someone with wisdom. The idea here is that the wiser the person is, the more likely they are to praise that which is worthy of praise and censure that which is worthy of censure.