Knowledge: pain or power?
In reading Einstein's Dreams this week two particular passages stood out to me.
"If a person holds no ambitions in this world, he suffers unknowingly. If a person holds ambitions, he suffers knowingly, but very slowly." (pg 36)
In reading this I took this to mean that some people are ignorant to what they are missing out on, while others know what they must give up for their goals. In this situation it seems to me that knowledge is pain.
"Some few people in every town, in their dreams, are vaguely aware that all has occurred in the past. These are the people with unhappy lives, and they sense that their misjudgments and wrong deeds and bad luck have all taken place in the previous loop of time." (pg 8)
In this passage as well it seems that knowledge is pain, those that recognize failure and think about the missteps they have taken are doomed to suffer. On the other hand, those that do no analyze their pasts, but simply live are less exposed to such torture.
In relation to revolution I of course think that thinking and knowledge are the foundation, but so is action, and in many cases thinking can become so overwhelming that no action ensues. I think that often times the most intelligent people become bogged down by their thoughts and this inhibits their ability to take action.
If knowledge is painful, however, does this diminish the power of knowledge?
I would say that the pain of knowledge gives one the ability to fully appreciate it and thus gives it more power. If there was no pain to accompany knowledge or the pursuit of knowledge then we would all simply be rotten cabbages full of facts, knowledgeable opinions and nonsensical equations.
ReplyDeletePain puts people and things into perspective. Without pain there would be no need for the pursuit of anything. Without pain we would simply be rotten cabbages rotting together in our rotten little cabbage patch.
Pain gives knowledge power by creating a hierarchy of 'smarts'. This is quite evident with our grading system and fro the buildup of our society. Those that know more, whether it be knowing more equations, knowing how to manipulate people, knowing how to dress, knowing how to act out on television or knowing 'street smarts' more often than not wind up on top.
It seems to me that a co-question to your question of whether or not pain diminishes the power of knowledge is
"If ignorance is bliss, why would we ever choose to not be ignorant?"
I was really struck by this passage as well.
ReplyDeleteI related it to Meno and how the more Socrates and Meno tried to derive the meaning of virtue, the more they realized how little they knew. Meno originally believed that his understanding of virtue made him knowledgeable, but throughout the dialogue realized that he truly did not understand it, thus truly making him wiser. His lack of understanding inspired him to inquire about virtue with Socrates to further sift out its meaning.
I think that knowledge makes you powerful if you are embracing of it. As in "Einstein's Dreams" the knowledge of repetition did not make them more powerful, because it did not inspire them to change their world or change their future.
Contrarily, in the world without memory, the people who are aware of and accepting of the fact that they had a past and that they will never remember it, are confident and capable (64) because knowledge of their situation has inspired them to deviate from the norm of reaction to their surroundings. While others chose to relive the past every day, they are the ones who have used the power that comes with the sad recognition of loss of memory, to change the way they relate to time and each other.
Knowledge is just an awareness of a fact or situation. It can be painful and frustrating, but I would argue that it is not inherently powerful or weak. Those qualities are derived from how the holder of the knowledge utilizes it.
In terms of revolution the duality between knowledge and pain which you expressed can be valuable. To know something and suffer from it is more likely to inspire action in people that drive revolutions because they are primed to take action by their character. I think the response to pain either mental or physical is something that is determined by character which is based pretty heavily on our perception of the world or events surrounding our circumstance (maybe the way we view time) so it is difficult to make a universal statement. The one important part of pain is that suffering contextualizes the future in terms of the now. If someone expects to suffer for a long time, they will likely make a change, but there are plenty of people willing to endure short term pain to avoid action and the possibility of long term suffering. I think the answer to your question is thus circumstantial, but in my opinion the fact that knowing certain things is painful, makes that knowledge more valuable.
ReplyDeleteAlec: I like the idea of suffering inspiring action, but I had in mind that pain can be crippling and in that sense restrict any action. What is the difference between short term and long term pain that is not physical? How would someone know that mental pain would subside or the pain of their situation would last for an extended period of time?
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