Topics Knowledge

Question My question is what is the importance of gaining knowledge, without any materialistic interest, and just for the sake of gaining knowledge. If a very knowledgeable person has no wealth, fame, power and any other materialistic plus point, still can he say that he's successful just and just because he has knowledge? For example if a person, Mr. A, led all his life in the pursuit of knowledge, just because of his curiosity, and earn no money, fame, power; he didn't convey his learnings to anyone by writing or any other means. He got no self satisfaction by knowing that he has become a great scholar (because to him there are tooooo many things he don't know even then). And in this pursuit he died. Can we say that Mr. A led a successful life?

Accepted:
May 14, 2007

Comments

One aspect of success is getting what you want, so if Mr. A wanted knowledge, and he got it, then he was successful. Indeed getting what you want is an aspect of success even if you don’t realise that you are getting it. For example, if I want to be a good role model for my children and I am, then I am successful, even if I mistakenly believe that I am a terrible role model. So even if Mr. A doesn’t realise that he is getting knowledge, if he is then he is successful.

But maybe it’s not enough for success to get what you want; maybe what you want also has to have some value other than the value of being wanted. For example, some people would deny that a person who has managed to collect an enormous number of used matches is successful, even if that is what he wanted to achieve, on the grounds that what he wanted has no value. I’m not convinced that this is right – I think maybe the bare fact of wanting something gives it some value – but if one does accept the need for intrinsic value, then the question about Mr. A becomes whether knowledge is valuable in itself, apart from the fact that Mr. A wants it. There is no quick and conclusive answer to this question, though most philosophers go along with the motto of that fraternity in the film Animal House: ‘knowledge is good’.