Why does learning involve un-learning? discarding info while adding info?
why must everything still be explained to me by scholars and experts once I’m aware of my ignorance? shouldn’t that be enough to wake up?
A just had moment downstairs when I was extremely aware of myself looking out of myself, while at the same time wondering if my conciousness extended outside my body. I concluded that I was ingnorant, wanted to wake up, but remained the same.
Now I’m having a cup of coffee at midnight. Maybe that will do the trick.
We learn constantly. However, not everything we learn is true. Thus, to be able to amend our ever growing stock of ‘wisdom’, we must discard that which is falsely wise. After all…you learn first to touch the stove, and then, from that painful experience, you learn not to touch it for fear of pain…still later, you unlearn that as well, and specialize: You learn not to touch the stove when its on, as that is the only time its truly dangerous.
As for the ignorance…I’m sorry, thats a severe misinterpretation of socrates, both in the initial statement (in which, I can only assume that socratic ideals were implied), and in the other comment above me.
Socrates’s acknowledgement of ignorance was only his first step…he acknowledged ignorance, then sought to remedy his ignorance.
When faced with “Is there no man smarter than you?” his reaction wasn’t to simply say “I don’t know” and give up, but to say “Hmm…lets find out”
…He didn’t choose to specialize in any of the fields he checked because the mere checking of them was part of his solution to the curing of another blind spot, which was obviously, by his actions and words alike, much more important than learning ‘philosophy’. or artistry, or stonemasonry, or any of the others that he grilled about their intelligence.
And for that purpose of his inquiry?
“I am but a gadfly upon this horse’s ass” -Socrates
it’s not the case that acknowledgment of ignorance brings knowledge, or even gets rid of ignorance. socrates’ message was that knowing one knows nothing is the first, not the final, step in attainment of knowledge.
Read “The Cloud of Unknowing”. Unknowing is catharsis like taking a crap. You get rid of the non-nuitritive food or thought in order to make room for the nuitritive.
