Humility and Learning

The Death of Socrates - 1787 - Jacques Louis David

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing. Socrates – in Plato’s Apology.

It is important that we constantly try to gain all the knowledge we can about the world. Ironically, though, we can only do this if we are open to the fact that we will never reach a place where we know everything.

Any knowledge we have – no matter how good – is not all the knowledge that exists – even about the obviously ‘real’ objects.

Less than a hundred years ago we had no concept of the behaviour of physical matter at a quantum (i.e. very, very, very microscopic) level and yet we now know about it and realise that even before we discovered it, there was still a quantum level of reality.

The most useful model of the acquisition of knowledge is to see it as a never ending ladder reaching towards truth of all types. This model acknowledges that each rung on the ladder is a necessary step as we climb and also, that above us there are further rungs waiting to be reached.

So hand in hand with our excitement at whatever it is that we learn or discover, we must train ourselves in a real humility before all that we don’t yet understand. If we don’t do this we will comfortably take up residence on a rung of the ladder and stop making progress. On the other hand, if we do combine humility and learning, we will constantly try to ascend the ladder to reach greater and greater heights.

Humility and Knowledge (xeniagreekmuslimah.wordpress.com)
Humility (noblemanstands.wordpress.com)
Just when you think you know something (fiercebeagle.com)
Thursday Trivia: Para||el Universes (dpecs.wordpress.com)
Cultivating Humility (seanwhitenack.wordpress.com)
Feigned Humility or The Sham of Intellectual Relativism (inchristus.wordpress.com)

5 comments on “Humility and Learning”

nrhatch says:

August 10, 2011 at 3:55 pm

It’s like Scrooge on Christmas morning, dancing around in his nightshirt, singing and clapping:

I don’t know what I don’t know, but now I know that I don’t know.

I don’t know if you follow Raptitude. But you might be interested in David’s latest post about “What’s Wrong With The World.”

http://www.raptitude.com/2011/08/ok-heres-whats-wrong-with-the-world/

creatingreciprocity says:

August 10, 2011 at 4:13 pm

Thanks for the suggestion – very interesting. This lecture – http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4512708238184670282 – has a very good overview of our historical issue with right and wrong – it is all very good but just in case you don’t have a full 28 minutes at your disposal and would like to be directe dto the particularly relevant bits, you could try watch from c. 20 minutes or so.

Reply
- nrhatch says:
  
  August 10, 2011 at 5:29 pm
  
  Thanks for the link. Fascinating topic.
  
  We are definitely encouraged to look to others for answers on how to behave . . . but that assumes that they have the answers. When I look at society as a whole, I’m not convinced that “they” do.
  
  You might also be interested in this article:
  
  Based on recent research, it appears that our mirror neurons encourage us to be kind and compassionate. The more we look within for guidance, the more in touch we become with those mirror neurons.
  
  Why We Don’t Need God To Be Good:
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-matousek/you-dont-need-god-to-be-g_b_854870.html?ref=fb&src=sp
- creatingreciprocity says:
  
  August 10, 2011 at 6:13 pm
  
  Thanks for the link to the article – very interesting – this is also good – http://www.neuroeconomicstudies.org/press/tv?task=videodirectlink&id=32
  I agree with you wholeheartedly and don’t think we should look at how ‘they’ act but rather at how ‘we’ know inside ourselves the manner in which we should behave towards each other. The main problems come about in areas like human rights as people claim that the cultural differences between us make an international code for human rights impossible. A lot of people even contend that the idea of human rights is a Western construct. I disagree.
  
  I think that when we do exactly as you are suggesting we find that within each of us – and within our societies – there is a broad agreement as to how we should act. Our myths and histories are replete with example of morality and ethics and there is very little difference between these fundamentals no matter where you travel in the world – suggesting that we have an innate sense of morality.
  
  The Nuremberg Principles – unheeded as they often are – were probably the first international statement that there are acts so heinous that regardless of your culture, beliefs or even fear of disobeying orders everybody everywhere agrees that they are wrong. Maybe if we could also start to get some agreement on what is right we might make more progress?