Is knowledge unconditionally good? Some people would say yes but I would say no, knowledge is not unconditionally good or at least not all the time. Knowledge does have its limitations on being unconditionally good where it starts to make people less happy. Nietzsche would say that knowledge is “only valuable insofar as it serves life” (7). He also would say that we shouldn’t have an excessive amount of knowledge because it gets in the way of life. So by just having the knowledge we need we can be content like the herd who has little to no knowledge but are happy. Nietzsche says we become less happy and we become more inward when we seek more knowledge. This type of knowledge would have intrinsic value which means that it’s valuable for its …show more content…
Even though the intrinsic knowledge may seem useless and you’ll keep it to yourself, I don’t feel this is true. Zagzebski brings up a good point saying that we desire knowledge and we tie it to what we care about. So something we care about might be intrinsic for Nietzsche or others but there are other people who care about the same thing we do. So this means that we would have someone to share and talk to about this knowledge that doesn’t have use for anything else, therefore not making you more inward. I think knowledge with intrinsic value is unconditionally good if you see it as just wanting to gain knowledge about things you like or care about, for example, gaining more knowledge on the band you like. Where knowledge starts to lose its’ goodness, is when you acquire negative knowledge, as in things you don’t want to …show more content…
He says “Every living thing needs to be surrounded by an atmosphere, a mysterious circle of mist: if one robs it of this veil, if one condemns a religion, an art, a genius to orbit as a star without atmosphere: then one should not wonder about its rapidly becoming withered, hard and barren” (40). So by acquiring more knowledge we’d destroy this illusion that he believes is necessary for life. Zagzebski would disagree and say that because we desire true belief and knowledge we will want to know the truth even if it isn’t pleasant but it’s still worth knowing. So this gets to how knowledge is not unconditionally good because it ruins this illusion of life and it leads to unpleasant things like there being no god, assuming that religion is an illusion. This is where knowledge has its limits on being good because it ruins this idea that brings them happiness. Since they crossed that line and gained this knowledge they ruin this illusion, which sometimes is good to have but other times it is not. Due to the fact that knowledge can cause unhappiness it is not unconditionally good because it has its limitations. It is inevitable that people will always want to cross those limitations because of the point that Zagzebski makes that knowledge is prima facie
Knowledge can be the key to success and can lead people to happier life. However, there are some instances that you can not gain any more knowledge because of how it would change your whole life. The drive of wanting more and more knowledge is best portrayed through two well -known books. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, and in Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, both the creature and Charlie are ostracized by society because they are different from everyone else but this distinction gave way for distinct fallouts because of their quest for knowledge beyond their reach to achieve happiness.
We as humans tend to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. We look for knowledge about everybody and everything that surrounds us in our day-to-day life. Sadly though, we must accept that in the grand scheme of life we (as a society) tend to put pleasure above our quest for knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge tends to take time and energy, two things we call invaluable, and it also shows us things that might depress us. Contrastingly, ignorance takes no time and energy.
it is seen that knowledge can hurt. It is also shown that sometimes one can know
...lusion, the quest for more knowledge and power can only be perceived as bad if it twists and corrupts the mind. But in reality, it is indeed a good thing to gain more knowledge and the power that comes with it since development and human advancement cannot have come this far without it. Knowledge, a popular adage says, is power!
Marquis de Condorcet’s Future Progress of the Human Mind depicts knowledge as being something that human beings want to achieve. To attain more knowledge on a specific thing, the information must be available through more universal education along with subjects being easier to classify. When the knowledge is available and simpler for humans, they will want to learn. Through people wanting to learn more things, new information will want to be discovered and in conclusion, be a happier place. Knowledge, in Condorcet’s eyes, is the key to happiness because it allows people to focus on life rather than surviving.
Knowledge helps people make conclusions, lets them be skillful, smart, and keeps them aware. People gather knowledge through experience, whether it's from school, mistakes, witnessing a situation, or trying new activities out. Including in “Fahrenheit 451”, the author, Ray Bradbury does an amazing job in explaining and describing to his audience of how society results in a setting without reasonable amounts of knowledge. People in the society of “Fahrenheit 451” begin to lose common sense after the books are prohibited to keep. In the novel 451 Ray Bradbury warns the audience that without knowledge people are manipulated easily. In reality knowledge is the key to surviving.
In both Oryx and Crake and A Canticle for Leibowitz, knowledged acts as a doubled-edged sword bringing wonders and inventions that truly make life easy, and at the same time bringing death and destruction in the form of weapons and military advancements. It is quite evident in both novels that knowledge acts a god, to be worshiped and studied, and as a god, chooses when to deal out good and bad deeds. Knowledge provided mankind with miracles and massacres. Knowledge itself is not lethal, mankind is the hand that directs the pathways of knowledge. Humans cause massacres, with the aide of knowledge. But if mankind is truly born evil, than it is only a matter of time for it to destroys itself. As mankind delves more deeply in the the endless mine of knowledge, it must take caution, as it has within its grasp to become gods…or demons.
After just a first reading this may seem to be true, however upon further analysis it becomes apparent that God?s intention was not to imply that knowledge was more significant than life, but instead that it cannot be appreciated without first possessing knowledge of both good and evil.
The pursuit of knowledge can lead to a humans destruction and awareness. The pursuit of
For us to understand the importance of knowledge, we first have to understand what knowledge is. Knowledge can be given to us by experience with something new or it can be acquired through. There is always a purpose for acquiring the information. There is a saying that “knowledge is power.” If you think practically, then knowledge is definitely giving you power to dictate your direction in life. There is a complex process through which a person acquires knowledge, and it depends on the mental capacity of a person as to how much knowledge he can acquire. In Plato’s Republic, we can see what knowledge does for the man in the allegory of the cave. In this story knowledge was acquired by an experience. In Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, we learn what the ultimate intellectual virtues are and that wisdom is the highest of all. Knowledge from Plato and wisdom form Aristotle can be connected through the achievement of intellect. Aristotle and Plato have different views on it but it all comes down to the fact that the acquisition of these leads to an ultimate good in life.
This reveals that knowledge not known that one already had, must
...r it becomes to discard. The fact that there is the possibility of knowledge getting discarded suggests that perhaps it should not have been accepted in the first place. This begs the question: is knowledge accepted too easily? More often than not, one requires an adequate amount of evidence and facts to accept something as true. However, sometimes there is no evidence and it is impossible to prove something true, yet it is still accepted as knowledge, as is in the case of many theories. This occurs mostly in the sciences, because many times it is difficult to substantiate scientific knowledge. In order to avoid this never-ending cycle of accepting and discarding knowledge, perhaps the standard of accepting knowledge as true should be raised. But sometimes when something is proven false, it leads to finding the truth, so maybe the standard should remain where it is.
...are flaws in current knowledge. It thus becomes easy to question the credibility of any of the knowledge that society holds. Yet, this should not impede society from distrusting the knowledge they have gained. It is important to be aware of the possible implications and possibilities for changes to knowledge. Being willing to accept changes will allow only
If it cannot be experienced, then there is no real benefit of this knowledge. If there is no benefit, then logically, the knowledge is not valuable in terms of the individual purposes of any human. Therefore, the value of knowledge is diminished if it is not applied and it would be fair to say that the use with purpose is the only way to develop and maintain knowledge. Furthermore, how can any knowledge that cannot be used be useful? Indeed, if some information is not applicable to any aspects of a particular person’s life, then this person is extremely likely to forget it. This implies that the value of knowledge is relative to each individual knower and always depends on his/her own perspective. Therefore, the application does determine the value. Whereas, without application in the real world the knowledge is just a belief since it cannot be experienced and thus cannot be
When I think about knowledge the first thing that comes to my mind is education. I believe that knowledge comes to people by their experiences in life. In other words, life is an instrument that leads me to gain knowledge. Many people consider that old people are wise because they have learned from good and bad experiences throughout their lives. Education requires work, dedication and faith to gain knowledge. We acquired knowledge through the guidance of from parents, role models, college/University teachers and life experiences.